The bodies were found buried near the village of Badush, northwest of Mosul, in an area that Iraqi forces recaptured last July.
The killing was a ``heinous crime carried out by Daesh terrorist gangs,'' Iraqi official Najiha Abdul-Amir al-Shimari told reporters. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Dozens of mass graves have been discovered in territory once held by the Islamic State group, though Iraq's government has only been able to examine a handful of them. Iraqi officials say they lack the resources and trained personnel to properly exhume so many sites.