The remains of 23 men from Iraq\’s Yazidi religious minority were found when a mass grave was excavated in northern Iraq, an official said on Saturday.

The remains of 23 men from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority were found when a mass grave was excavated in northern Iraq, an official said on Saturday.

It is the latest evidence of atrocities committed by the ISIL group to emerge since the Iraqi army and the Kurdish forces pushed the Takfiris back.

A team acting on a tip-off from a resident opened the grave near the village of Bardiyan on Friday, said Fuad Othman, a spokesman for the Kurdish regional government.

Othman said those killed had been shot, and some had their hands bound.
A ditch where some 25 people were murdered was found farther south in Nineveh province on February 1, and Othman said dozens more bodies were believed to be in an another grave in the Hardan area.

Since they launched an offensive in several areas across Iraq last June, ISIL terrorists carried out a campaign of killings, kidnappings, enslavement and rape against Yazidis living in the area that the UN termed an "attempt to commit genocide."

The Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish forces, tribes and popular mobilization forces regained control of several areas seized by ISIL.