Iraqi authorities have exhumed 123 bodies from a mass grave belonging to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in the village of al-Humaydat in the western Iraqi district of Mosul. The mass grave is located near Badoush prison. ISIS had massacred more than 600 inmates of the prison, mostly Shia Muslims, in 2014. DNA samples are taken from the bodies, which are then compared with samples taken from relatives of the murdered prison inmates.

The ISIS had stormed the prison and selected mainly Shiites from 3,000 prisoners. The Sunni prisoners were freed for the most part. Predominantly Shiite prisoners were driven into a ravine and executed there one by one by gunfire. One survivor told the Human Rights Watch, "It started with someone saying, 'Everyone raise your hand and say your number.' I was number 43. I heard them say '615,' and then an ISIS guy said, 'We're going to have a good dinner tonight.' A man behind us asked, 'Are you guys ready?' Another person answered 'Yes' and started shooting at us with a machine gun. Then they all started shooting at us from behind, down the row." The survivors immediately rolled into the ravine and hid among the bodies. After that, the ISIS members fired into the ravine, at anything that was still moving.  

More than 200 mass graves containing the remains of up to 12,000 people have been discovered so far in Iraq and southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). The United Nations sees clear evidence for the classification of the acts of ISIS as genocide.