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    'Nothing Left In The World Except These Bones': Yazidis Search For Mothers' Remains

    Investigators have discovered 17 mass graves containing bodies of some of the 3,000 Yazidis killed by ISIS. For survivors, a grave with remains of older and pregnant women prompts a special anguish.
    by Jane Arraf Dec 02, 2020 5 minutes
    Iraqi workers and international investigators excavate a mass grave known as "the mother's grave" in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in October. The grave in the village of Solagh is believed to hold more than 80 bodies of women ISIS considered too old to sexually enslave and heavily pregnant women it did not want to transport.

    In the village of Solagh in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq, surrounded by fields where no crops grow, laborers in masks and white protective suits carefully sift through the sand and dirt of a former fish farm.

    They take turns shoveling the sand into a rectangular, coffee table-size wire sifter to make sure they don't lose small pieces of bone.

    They are looking for the remains of women whom ISIS deemed too old for sexual slavery when it embarked on genocide against the Yazidi religious minority six years ago. ISIS killed the women — at least 80 of them — and tossed their bodies into a pit. The former fish farm is now known as "the mothers' grave."

    A photographer takes photos to be used as possible evidence of war crimes.

    So far, Iraqi and international investigators have discovered 17 mass graves in Sinjar, containing the bodies

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