A mass grave containing the remains of 222 ethnic Kurds was found in the southern Iraqi province of Diwaniya, Baghdad's Human Rights Ministry said on Sunday, dpa reported.
The men, women and children had been shot and buried there in 1987, under the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the ministry added.
Most victims of Hussein's rule, from 1979 to 2003, were from the Kurdish minority or Shiite Muslims. The majority of mass executions were carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
More than four years after Hussein's execution at the end of 2006, ministry officials estimate that around 680 bodies still lie buried in the desert.