14 bodies found in Baghdad

2005-05-06 12:35

Baghdad - Iraqi police on Friday found the bodies of 14 men, hands bound and wearing blindfolds, shot dead with a bullet to the head, in northeastern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

"The 14 victims were wearing white dishdashas (traditional Arab gowns) and were unearthed. They all had their hands tied and had been shot in the head," the official said.

Locals alerted the police to the fact that people were using a bulldozer to bury bodies in a vacant lot in the Kisra wa Atash district.

"When the police arrived on the scene, the driver of the bulldozer ran away. We found two bodies on the spot and 12 more when we dug up the area," the official said.

"The bodies are probably a day or two old and we think the unidentified victims come from a rural area," he added.

The interior ministry official explained that the neighbourhood lies on the edge of Sadr City, the impoverished two-million-strong stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and is controlled by his Mehdi Army militia.

- AFP