A mass grave containing the remains of about 100 beheaded civilians has been discovered inside a school in a town south of Mosul, Iraq's military said in a statement Monday.
The mass grave was found by Iraqi forces in the School of Agriculture on the outskirts of Hammam Al Alil, a town that was recaptured from the Islamic State (IS) on Monday, Iraq's Joint Military Command said.
"Gangs of IS militants continue to commit crimes against our people," the statement said.
Special teams are being sent to the site to investigate the killings, the statement said. Beheadings and mass graves have become a hallmark of the terror group.
Iraq's federal police forces and army troops attacked the IS-held town of Hammam Al Alil – about 30km south of Mosul, and the last significant settlement on the Tigris River before Mosul – on Saturday.
A day earlier, the UN Refugee Agency said it had received reports that IS was instructing residents of the town to hand over boys aged 9 and older, apparently to fight on behalf of the terror group.
Since October 17, a huge coalition of Iraqi forces have been waging an offensive to retake Mosul, IS' major stronghold in Iraq, which has been under the terror group's control for two years.