{"id":25165,"date":"2016-05-07T03:37:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T03:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/dozens-of-isil-mass-graves-found-in-iraq-says-un\/"},"modified":"2016-05-07T03:37:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T03:37:06","slug":"dozens-of-isil-mass-graves-found-in-iraq-says-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/dozens-of-isil-mass-graves-found-in-iraq-says-un\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of ISIL mass graves found in Iraq, says UN envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{UN Iraq envoy says there is evidence &#8216;heinous crimes&#8217; were committed as over 50 mass graves found in former ISIL areas.}<\/p>\n<p>More than 50 mass graves have been discovered in territory formerly controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq, including three burial pits in a football field, the UN envoy has said.<\/p>\n<p>Jan Kubis, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, told the Security Council on Friday that evidence of the &#8220;heinous crimes&#8221; committed by the group in Iraq were being uncovered as territory is retaken from ISIL. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;More than 50 mass graves have been discovered so far in several areas of Iraq,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Iraqi forces, with backing from the US-led coalition that carries out daily air strikes against ISIL, also known as ISIS, have retaken significant ground in recent months. <\/p>\n<p>In the city of Ramadi, three graves containing a total of up to 40 sets of remains were found in a football field on April 19, said Kubis. <\/p>\n<p>Ramadi was retaken from ISIL when Iraqi forces seized the main government compound late last year, but the city was completely retaken only in February.<\/p>\n<p>The envoy said that the humanitarian crisis was worsening in Iraq, with nearly a third of the population, or over 10 million people, now requiring urgent aid &#8211; double the number from last year. <\/p>\n<p>He projected that a further two million people could be displaced by the end of the year by new military campaigns aimed at driving out ISIL. <\/p>\n<p>Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched an offensive in March in the province of Nineveh, of which ISIL-controlled Mosul is the capital. ISIL have held Mosul since June 2014. <\/p>\n<p>Kubis urged Iraqi leaders to resolve differences that have led to street protests in Baghdad, saying that the turmoil will only help ISIL maintain its foothold. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are the ones who stand to benefit from political instability and lack of reforms,&#8221; the UN envoy said.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, protesters in Baghdad stormed parliament after MPs again failed to approve nominees for a cabinet of technocrats to replace the government of party-affiliated ministers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-12168 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/2e23f7c0a1114830a1e3278c0d5a0f58_18.jpg\" alt=\"Iraqi security forces including a forensics team work at the site of a mass grave in the stadium area in Ramadi\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{UN Iraq envoy says there is evidence &#8216;heinous crimes&#8217; were committed as over 50 mass graves found in former ISIL areas.} More than 50 mass graves have been discovered in territory formerly controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq, including three burial pits in a football field, the UN [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25165"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25165"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}