The grave was discovered in Tal al-Shaikhia in the Muthanna province in southern Iraq, about 15-20 kilometres (10-12 miles) from the main road there, an AFP journalist said.

Specialised teams began exhuming the grave earlier this month after it was initially discovered in 2019, said Diaa Karim, the head of the Iraqi authority for mass graves, adding that it is the second such grave to be uncovered at the site.

"After removing the first layer of soil and the remains appearing clearly, it was discovered that they all belonged to women and children dressed in Kurdish springtime clothes," Karim told AFP on Wednesday.

He added that they likely came from Kalar in the northern Sulaimaniyah province, part of what is now Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, estimating that there were "no less than 100" people buried in the grave.

Efforts to exhume all the bodies are ongoing, he said, adding that the numbers could change.

Following Iraq's deadly war with Iran in the 1980s, Saddam's government carried out the ruthless "Anfal Operation" between 1987 and 1988 in which it is thought to have killed around 180,000 Kurds.

Saddam was toppled in 2003 following a US-led invasion of Iraq and was hanged three years later, putting an end to Iraqi proceedings against him on charges of genocide over the Anfal campaign.

Karim said a large number of the victims found in the grave "were executed here with live shots to the head fired at short range".

He suggested some of them may have been "buried alive" as there was no evidence of bullets in their remains.

Ahmed Qusai, the head of the excavation team for mass graves in Iraq, meanwhile pointed to "difficulties we are facing at this grave because the remains have become entangled as some of the mothers were holding their infants" when they were killed.

Durgham Kamel, part of the authority for exhuming mass graves, said another mass grave was found at the same time that they began exhuming the one at Tal al-Shaikhia.

He said the burial site was located near the notorious Nugrat al-Salman prison where Saddam's authorities held dissidents.

The Iraqi government estimates that about 1.3 million people disappeared between 1980 and 1990 as a result of atrocities and other rights violations committed under Saddam.