By Arif Yusuf and Ali Jawad
BAGHDAD (AA) - A second mass grave containing the bodies of victims of the 2014 “Speicher massacre” by the Daesh terrorist group was discovered late Tuesday in Iraq’s central city of Tikrit (regional capital of Saladin province), according to the Iraqi Health Ministry.
“The site appears to contain numerous bodies,” Zaid Ali Abbas, head of the ministry’s forensics department, said in a statement, adding that the mass grave had been found in Tikrit’s presidential palace complex.
“We’re still unearthing bodies,” he added. "We still don’t know how many bodies the grave contains.”
But according to a local medical source who spoke anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media, at least 12 bodies had been dug up as of Wednesday morning.
In June 2014, Daesh terrorists -- after overrunning much of northern and western of Iraq -- reportedly killed more than 2,000 cadets and personnel at Saladin’s Speicher military academy.
In video footage that purportedly shows the massacre, militants can be seen firing on their victims at close range before dumping their bodies into the Tigris River and into mass graves.
Last year, the Iraqi government announced it had unearthed the bodies of more than 1,000 massacre victims in the first series of graves to be found in Tikrit.