Uncovering A Massacre In Iraq

05:52

April 29, 2015

An Iraqi forensic team works at the site of a mass grave, believed to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers killed by Islamic State group militants when they overran Camp Speicher military base last June, in Tikrit, Iraq, 80 miles north of Baghdad, Thursday, April 9, 2015. (Karim Kadim/AP)

Last June, militants with the self-proclaimed Islamic State committed one of the worst atrocities of their sweep through Iraq. As they took control of the city of Tikrit, they killed perhaps as many as 1,700 young men - at least that's the number that the Iraqi authorities put on the massacre of Shiite soldiers, who were then thrown into a mass grave.

Now that ISIS has been forced from the city, forensic teams have moved in to try to uncover the extent of the crime. The BBC's Ian Pannell has watched the teams at work.

Note: This BBC interview can be heard in the Here & Now podcast or with the WBUR app.

Reporter

Ian Pannell, correspondent for the BBC. He tweets @BBCiPannell.

This segment aired on April 29, 2015.

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