Iraqi Kurds Uncover Mass Graves in Formerly ISIS-Held Sinjar

A Kurdish fighter records smoke rising over Sinjar, northern Iraq from oil fires set by Islamic State militants as Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, launch a major assault on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. The strategic town of Sinjar was overran last year by the Islamic State group in an onslaught that caused the flight of tens of thousands of Yazidis and first prompted the United States to launch the air campaign against the militants. AP Photo/Bram Janssen

IRBIL, Iraq—Kurdish fighters have uncovered two mass graves outside Sinjar, a northern Iraqi town near the Syrian border that was ruled by the Islamic State (ISIS) for more than a year before the extremists were driven out last week.

Qasim Samir, the Iraqi Kurdish director of intelligence in Sinjar, said Sunday that the first grave contained 78 bodies of elderly women. A second grave contained between 50 and 60 bodies of men, women and children.

ISIS captured Sinjar during its rampage across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014 and killed and captured thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority, including women forced into sexual slavery.

Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes pushed the extremist group out of the town in a two-day operation last week.