Iraq mass graves yield 100
2008-04-27 17:35
Baghdad - Iraqi security forces have
found more than 100 bodies in two mass graves, military
officials said on Sunday.
Fifty bodies were found in a mass grave in central Iraq on
Sunday, a military source in the area said, and another team
said it had discovered more than 50 bodies in a grave south of
Baghdad on April 17.
The grave found on Sunday was in the village of al-Guba, 80km north of Baghdad, in the troubled Diyala province,
where al-Qaeda Sunni Arab militants have regrouped after being
driven out of other parts of the country.
Most of the bodies had their hands bound and gunshot wounds
to the head. Some were decomposed, according to the military
source, who declined to be named.
A senior security spokesperson in Baghdad, Major-General Qassim
Moussawi, said police and Iraqi military had uncovered 51 bodies
in a grave on April 17 in Mahmudiya, a town 30km south of Baghdad.
"We received information from some citizens that there are
bodies in the al-Askari neighbourhood in Mahmudiya. We searched
the neighbourhood and found the bodies," Moussawi said.
He added that security forces had taken them to the morgue
of a local hospital and some families had already identified the
victims as their relatives.