Forensic teams begin excavating 12 sites in Tikrit where IS murdered 1,700 Shia soldiersimages/2015/04/07/05.JPG

Iraqi forensic teams have described how they wept as they began to excavate 12 graves, believed to be the final resting place of as many as 1,700 soldiers killed in cold blood by IS last summer

Iraqi forensic teams have described how they wept as they began to excavate 12 graves, believed to be the final resting place of as many as 1,700 soldiers killed in cold blood by IS last summer.

The teams began the gruesome task of uncovering the bodies of the young army recruits of Camp Speicher, slaughtered by IS terrorists as they surged across northern Iraq for the ‘crime’ of being Shi’ite.

Dozens’ of ID cards belonging to the army cadets were found at the late dictator’s presidential compound last Wednesday.

Khalid al-Atabi, an Iraqi health official working with the forensic team sent to Tikrit, said that they began digging up the first of the 12 mass graves on the banks of the Tigris River.