India said on Tuesday that 39 Indians, who were kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq in 2014, had been confirmed dead after their bodies were found and DNA samples matched, Reuters reported.

The bodies were recovered from a mound in Badush, in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was freed from the Islamic State last July. DNA tests had confirmed the bodies to be those of the construction workers who went missing from Mosul, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said.

“With full proof I can say these 39 are dead,” Swaraj told parliament. The government had for years said it would only declare the men dead once it had full evidence.