Abdel el Razak Talab regularly visited his brother's grave in the Iraqi town of Qaraya while it was under the control of the Islamic State terror group (ISIS , ISIL, IS and Daesh).He still visits now but his brother's grave, like so many others, is marked by a broken tombstone.

When the ISIS group first overran Qayara more than two years ago, they began destroying headstones at a graveyard to the east of the town, telling residents they were forbidden because they did not exist at the time of the prophet.

Razak Talab said the extremists recruited him to drive prisoners to the graveyard to destroy the stones.

"They (Islamic State group terrorists) brought everybody that was imprisoned, whether it was for smoking or shaving or wearing illegal clothes. And they punished them by bringing them here to destroy the stones," he told The Associated Press.

Smoke billows across the graveyard from the nearby burning oil fields, high above the heads of mourning relatives gathered amid the broken tombstones.

Ahmed Abdullah Khalaf, visiting his grandmother's grave, said local residents wanted to fight the ISIS group but "were weak under their flag".

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