MASS GRAVES IN TIKRIT

The newly 'liberated' Iraqi city of Tikrit is now revealing a bloody recent history: ISIS was busy chopping up human beings of all genders and ages and throwing them into pits of death..  CNN reports on new information being revealed today about just how extensive the trail of death was:

Mass graves believed to hold Iraqi soldiers have been discovered in newly liberated Tikrit.

Up to 1,700 bodies may be recovered. ISIS claimed to have executed that many soldiers captured in June outside Camp Speicher, a fortified Iraqi base near Tikrit.

CNN's Arwa Damon saw nine bodies recovered by forensics experts at one of the excavation sites. Grieving Iraqis, apparently not related to the soldiers, gathered to pray over the bodies and pay their respects as the grisly excavation work proceeded.

There are images of people grieving over locations where children may have been murdered..
Days ago Shiite militias retook the city of Tikrit from ISIS fighters who held it.

More from CNN:

Human Rights Watch described the "Speicher Massacre" -- as it has been dubbed in Iraq -- as the "largest reported incident" where "ISIS captured more than 1,000 soldiers fleeing Camp Speicher ... then summarily executed at least 800 of them."

Based on satellite imagery and witness testimony, Human Rights Watch last year was able to identity a number of mass grave sites inside Tikrit and the presidential palace complex.

Families of the missing soldiers had been seeking answers from the Iraqi government about what happened. The families gave DNA samples to the Iraqi Ministry of Health last year so authorities would be able to match them to unidentified bodies the government may find.

DEVELOPING..