Mass grave found in Iraq

2005-04-28 15:12

Baghdad - A mass grave containing dozens of bodies believed to be victims of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein has been discovered at a former army camp in northern Iraq, a Kurdish official said Thursday.

"The mass grave was discovered near Kifri, about 150km north of Baghdad, and first indications suggest its contains the remains of many women and children," said Aryan Raouf, responsible for human rights in President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

"The discovery was made at the site of a former Iraqi army camp and we have set up a committee to look into this."

It was not immediately known who the victims were, but the area is located to the south of a semi-autonomous Kurdish region which repeatedly fought Saddam's army.

Earlier this month, a mass grave containing dozens of bodies was uncovered in the Shiite city of Nasiriyah on the banks of the Euphrates, one of dozens uncovered in the south of the country where Saddam's regime brutally put down a Shiite rebellion in 1991.

About 290 mass graves have been uncovered since Saddam's downfall in April 2003. They contain the bodies of 300 000 people believed to have been killed under his regime, outgoing human rights minister Bakhtiar Amin said in January. - AFP

- SAPA