The oil refinery city of Baiji [7] was taken from ISIS Oct. 21 by Iraqi security forces and their Shi'ite militia allies [8]. Key to the fighting was the Popular Mobilization Units or Hashid al-Shaabi [9] militia. (Long War Journal [10], Oct. 19) After driving ISIS forces from the city, the PMU reported the discovery of at least 19 mass graves containing "365 bodies of Daesh terrorists"—the Arabic acronym [11] for Islamic State. It was not clear how long the bodies had been buried there or how they were identified as ISIS fighters. (AFP [12], Oct. 21)
