Iraq holds funeral for Yazidi mass grave victims of IS

Incense wafted in the air as a funeral cortege made its way Thursday to a cemetery in northern Iraq for the burial of 41 Yazidis killed by jihadists and recovered from mass graves.

After seizing swathes of Iraq in 2014, Islamic State group jihadists carried out horrific massacres, including in the northern region of Sinjar where the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority has long been rooted.

After Iraqi authorities declared victory over the jihadists in 2017, scores of mass graves were discovered across the country, including in the Sinjar town of Kojo.

The first of several mass grave was exhumed in Kojo in mid-March 2019, followed by a long and painstaking process of identifying the remains.

In November, a German court, in a historic first, jailed an Iraqi IS member to life in prison for war crimes against the Yazidis, finding him guilty of genocide.

On Thursday, drums rolled and traditional flutes played as Iraqi soldiers carried 41 wooden coffins.

Portraits of the victims -- both men and women -- were placed in front of each coffin before it was lowered into the ground.

Flowers and the Iraqi flag were laid on top of the coffins.

Yazidi religious hymns were recited during the ceremony, as women wailed and beat their chest in mourning.

Suleiman Hussein, 53, stood among the mourners to pay respect to his father, a cousin and several uncles.