BAGHDAD, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi President Barham Salih visited on Sunday a mass grave found in the desert of Samawa in Iraq's southern province of Muthanna.

Salih was accompanied by Jeanine Plasschaert, head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), and Ahmed Jouda, governor of Muthanna, to attend the unearthing ceremony of the mass grave.

The mass grave contains the remains of dozens of Iraqi Kurds who were detained during the Anfal campaign carried out in late 1980s by the forces of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Salih said Saddam's regime killed many Kurds because "he thought they posed danger to his regime," the statement said.

The oppression under Hussein's regime as well as the Islamic State extremist group "is a clear indication that we are not immune to their terrorism, which requires Iraqis to learn from the lesson," Salih added, emphasizing that "a state with injustice never lasts."