Thousands of unmarked graves have been found outside the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, it was reported today.
Kurdish officials said that at least 2,000 unmarked graves were discovered just outside the oil-rich city, in an area where Saddam Hussein's forces had repressed Iraqi Kurds in the past.
The officials told the BBC that the area was a mass grave where the Iraqi army killed Kurds in the late 1980s. The site is reported to be close to an old Iraqi military base.
The claims have not yet been independently verified and there has been no excavation of the site.
In 1988 Saddam ordered a massive operation known as the "Anfal Campaign" against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq.
Elsewhere, British forces are reported to have discovered a mass grave in southern Iraq. Military officials said a number of shallow graves were identified to British forces by some Iraqis.
The military spokesmen said it was not immediately clear how many bodies there were and whose they were.