The terrorist organization ISIS named the “Well of Hell”, which is located approximately 10 kilometers south of the Tal Afar district and is more than 100 meters deep, known to locals as the “Allav Anter” well. After ISIS took control of the region on June 9, 2014, they threw thousands of people into this well after executing them. Turkmens report that their relatives who were kidnapped by ISIS and whose fates they could not obtain were thrown into this well.
OPENED AFTER 10 YEARS, BODIES ARE BEING RECOVERED
With the initiative of Turkmen institutions, associations and non-governmental organizations, this mass grave was opened by the Iraqi government after 10 years and the bodies began to be exhumed.
Turhan Ketene, the President of the Turkmeneli Cooperation and Culture Foundation, said in his statement that there are more than 1,000 bodies of Tal Afar Turkmens in this deep well, which was turned into a mass grave by the terrorist organization ISIS.
Ketene stated that the terrorist organization ISIS kidnapped thousands of Turkmens from Tal Afar between 2014 and 2017, when it took control of the region, and that there was no information about their fate.
Ketene said they informed government officials 6 years ago that the well was a mass grave and requested that the recently initiated exhumation of bodies and remains continue.
Reminding that ISIS committed mass murder against humanity here according to the international human rights declaration, Ketene called for the body recovery efforts to be uninterrupted and for the bodies of thousands of missing people to be found as soon as possible.
THERE ARE ALSO REMAINS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Tal Afar District Governor Halil Muhsin stated that they estimated that there were more than 1,500 bodies in the well based on the information and documents they obtained from non-governmental organizations.
Muhsin reported that the efforts to remove the remains of bodies from the well have been continuing for about a month and a half, and emphasized that it is estimated that there are still many bodies of missing people in the mass grave.
Muhsin reported that there are many mass graves in Tal Afar other than the well, but they have not yet been discovered.
“Among the bodies that were removed, there are the remains of many children and women,” said Muhsin, requesting that the work be accelerated and DNA tests be conducted.
Ali Habib, the Tal Afar Coordinator of the Turkmeneli Human Rights Center affiliated with the Turkmeneli Cooperation and Culture Foundation, said that according to the images previously released by the terrorist organization ISIS and the statements of eyewitnesses from the local people, there were bodies of Turkmens who were executed in the well.