ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A mass funeral was held in Mosul on Tuesday for 47 members of the Iraqi security forces who were killed in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), with their remains having been found in two mass graves in the vicinity of the northern Iraqi city.

ISIS seized Mosul and other nearby territories in 2014, proclaiming the city the capital of its so-called “caliphate” and carrying out widespread killings, kidnappings, and displacement in a genocidal campaign that has resulted in unidentified bodies lying scattered in mass graves across Nineveh province and beyond.

The Tuesday funeral ceremony saw coffins of the victims being draped with the Iraqi flag as fellow security forces personnel and family members mourned them.

"The burial of the remains of 47 martyrs from the people of south Mosul, after completing the procedures for identifying their identities, represents a confirmation of the Iraqi government's commitment to continuing to follow up on the file of terrorism victims," said Qasim al-Araji, security advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi.

"The sacrifices of the people of Mosul constitute an integral part of the sacrifices of all Iraqis in confronting terrorism and defending the homeland, and reflect the unity of the Iraqi people and their will to safeguard the country's security and stability," Araji asserted. 

In 2018, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) revealed that it had documented 202 mass grave sites for ISIS victims in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Anbar, estimating the number of victims in the mass graves to be between 6,000 and 12,000 people.

The remains of the 47 personnel buried in Mosul were uncovered from two mass graves in Hamam al-Alil, located some 20 kilometers south of Mosul.

Thousands of members of the Iraqi military and police were killed in the fight against ISIS, with the extremist group having been territorially defeated in the country in late 2017. However, fragmented ISIS cells scattered across Iraq and Syria still carry out occasional bombings and hit-and-run attacks against state institutions and civilian centers.