Iraqi teams exhume hundreds of bodies from mass graves in Tikrit

Forensic teams exhumed hundreds of corpses in Tikrit

Forensic teams exhumed hundreds of corpses in Tikrit believed to be some of the estimated 1,700 Iraqi air force cadets slain by the so-called Islamic State last year.

The recovery effort unearthed more than 597 bodies in the city that Iraqi forces recaptured.

The air force cadets were killed in June at Speicher Camp, a former American base a few miles outside of Tikrit. The so-called Islamic State forces were sweeping southward after seizing Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. The mass graves are the first discovered containing the apparent remains of the Speicher cadets.