Iraq mass graves hold 696 remains from 1983 Barzani Anfal arrests

ERBIL, Iraq — Forty-three years after Iraq's former Baath regime removed thousands of Barzani men and boys from detention camps near Erbil on July 31, 1983, mass graves and search efforts continue to define the Anfal campaign's legacy. Most of those taken were 12 years old and were transferred to southern deserts, according to the Human Rights Watch, which cited witness testimony and former regime documents and put the number of the missing between 5,000 and 8,000. Excavations in the Barzan district of Erbil have so far recovered the remains of 696 victims, while digs in the Basya desert near the city of Muthanna have yielded bones belonging to roughly 500 people, the report said. Iraq's Higher Criminal Court ruled on May 3, 2011 that the killings amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. The court sentenced former military officer Shakir Taha Yahya Ghafoor al-Douri to death in December 2025 in connection with executions linked to mass graves near Anbar province, though he died in May 2026 before the case concluded. The Kurdistan Regional Government has renewed calls on the federal government to provide material and moral compensation to the families. Prime Minister Ali Zaidan described the events as genocide carried out by the former Baath regime against the Kurdish national movement. Witnesses warned that searches are now a race against the aging of survivors and that documentation faces a growing risk of being lost.