ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq on Saturday transferred the remains of 153 Kurdish victims of the Anfal genocide to the Kurdistan Region, after they were discovered in a mass grave in Muthanna province in 2024.

Iraq’s Martyrs Foundation, in coordination with the forensic medicine department, transferred the remains to relevant authorities in the Kurdistan Region, Adil Salih, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s martyrs’ affairs ministry, confirmed to The New Region.

The remains were discovered in 2024 in a mass grave in the Tal al-Shaikh area in the deserts of Samawa, Muthanna province, according to Iraqi state media.

“The necessary examinations and sample collections were performed on all the remains, which were then handed over to a committee from Sulaimani province for temporary burial, pending their identification and subsequent handover to their families,” state media reported.

The Anfal campaign, carried out by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the late 1980s, targeted Iraq’s Kurdish population and resulted in the deaths and disappearance of thousands of people.

Since the fall of the Baath regime, multiple mass graves have been uncovered throughout Iraq, containing the remains of victims of the Anfal genocide.

In January 2025, a similar mass grave containing 155 remains of people killed during the Anfal campaign was uncovered in the Samawa desert.

Anfal, the eighth chapter of the Islamic Holy book of the Quran, was used as the campaign's codename, which directly translates to "spoils of war."

Over 182,000 Kurds were massacred in the eight-year-long campaign, and thousands of Kurdish villages were destroyed and wiped out.

Kurdish officials have repeatedly sought compensation for the victims’ families. To date, the remains of thousands of victims are still missing in Iraq.