BAGHDAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The authorities of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh on Wednesday retrieved 10 bodies from the debris of devastated buildings of the provincial capital Mosul.
The bodies were found when the municipality of Mosul was removing the rubble of dozens of devastated buildings on the bank of the Tigris River in the Shahwan neighborhood in the city's old city center, Hussam Khalil from the Civil Defense told Xinhua.
The decomposed corpses are believed to be the militants of the Islamic State (IS) group who were killed during the battles in the city in mid-2017, Khalil said.
The municipality found explosive belts, weapons, and roadside bombs near the bodies, Khalil said, adding that the municipality will continue removing the rubble from the devastated areas, especially in the old city center in the western side of Mosul.
On Monday, Khalil told Xinhua that the authorities retrieved 23 bodies while removing the rubble from the nearby Ras al-Kour neighborhood in the devastated old city center.
Over the past years, the provincial authorities carried out campaigns to retrieve hundreds of bodies for people killed and buried under rubble.
They are either IS militants or civilians who were prevented by the extremist militants from leaving their homes during the fierce battles and heavy bombardment in the city, which is located some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
In July 2017, Iraq officially declared the liberation of Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, from the IS after nearly nine months of fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in the country. Enditem
