Dasht-e Leili ( en, Leili Desert; fa, دشت لیلی) is a desert in the

Jowzjan Province Jowzjan, sometimes spelled Jawzjan or Jozjan (Dari: ), is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country bordering neighboring Turkmenistan. The province is divided into 11 districts and contains hundreds of v ...

Dasht-e-Leili Photos; Sheberghan Prison and Pit Locations at Dasht-e-Leili
Physicians for Human Rights, accessed 19 February 2012. of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Mass graves of the Afghan Civil War

In May–July 1997, following the first battle of Mazar-i-Sharif during the Afghan Civil War, forces loyal to Abdul Malik Pahlawan dumped more than 2,000 summarily executed

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

prisoners of war into at least 20 mass graves in the Leili Desert. A year later, when the Taliban retook the city in August 1998, they massacred thousands of

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...

Hazara civilians and soldiers in the city (as well as numerous indiscriminate killings of others such as

Uzbeks The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...

and

Tajiks Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...

), dumping hundreds to thousands of them in the Leili Desert as well. In December 2001, an unknown number of hundreds to thousands of Taliban prisoners of war were killed, likely by

Junbish-i Milli The National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan ( prs, جنبش ملی اسلامی افغانستان, ''Junbish-i-Milli Islami Afghanistan''), sometimes called simply Junbish, is a Turkic political party in Afghanistan. Its founder is Marshal A ...

, and also dumped in the Leili Desert near the city of

Sheberghan Sheberghān or Shaburghān ( Uzbek, Pashto, fa, شبرغان), also spelled ''Shebirghan'' and ''Shibarghan'', is the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan. The city of Sheberghan has a population of 175,599. It has four ...

. This event, which became known as the " Dasht-i-Leili massacre", occurred during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

References

{{coord, 36, 53, 49, N, 65, 39, 57, E, display=title Deserts of Afghanistan