Special to WorldTribune.com

A grave holding the remains of dozens of Yazidi women deemed by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) too old to be kept as sex slaves was discovered in the Iraqi town of Sinjar on Nov. 14.

Iraqi officials said they found the bodies of 78 women, all aged between 40 and around 80, at the grave site on the edge of town.

Sinjar, the site of a brutal massacre by ISIL against the minority Yazidis, was seized from ISIL on Nov. 13 by Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes.

“It seems the (ISIL) terrorist members only wanted young girls to enslave,” said Miyasir Hajji, a Sinjar council member.

Mahma Khalil, the Iraqi official responsible for the Sinjar area, confirmed that the grave site had been found.

ISIL captured Sinjar in August 2014, stranding thousands of Yazidis on a mountain top and carrying out a massacre the United Nations has said is a possible genocide. Aiding the Yazidis was one of the primary reasons the U.S. began its air campaign against ISIL.

  Liberation of Sinjar reveals mass grave of women too old to be ISIL sex slaves, Sinjar, WorldTribune.com, Yazidis