"The joint excavation crews have discovered 16 bodies of men who were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs," said the district chief Mohammed Mulla Hassan, from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, Reuters reports.
"They were found in the Kobachi area, which is part of Saadiya District, and they were executed in the past few months," he added.
A joint search team from the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq and Baghdad's human rights ministry made the discovery.
Hassan put the blame for the killings on ISIS militants, who controlled the area until late November when they were forced out by militias fighting on behalf of the Iraqi government.