The Hindu : International : Wave of sectarian violence in Iraq; 85 bodies found

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Wednesday, Mar 15, 2006

International

International

Wave of sectarian violence in Iraq; 85 bodies found

BAGHDAD: In the past 24 hours, police have found the bodies of at least 85 men killed by gunfire execution style in a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian killing, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. They include at least 27 bodies stacked in a mass grave in an eastern Shia neighbourhood.

Much of the bloodshed — the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since bombers destroyed an important Shia shrine last month — followed deadly weekend explosions in a teeming Shia slum in which 58 persons died and more than 200 were wounded.

Ban on vehicles

Iraq's Interior Ministry announced a ban on driving in Baghdad to coincide with the first meeting of Iraq's new Parliament on Thursday. The ban takes effect at 8 p.m. on Wednesday and lasts until 4 p.m. on Thursday.

Squabbling over the composition of a new government has delayed the inaugural session since the results of Dec. 15 parliamentary elections were confirmed over a month ago.

Leaders of Iraq's main ethnic and religious blocs began a series of marathon meetings on Tuesday in an attempt to break the deadlock. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been shuttling between the main factions, joined the session hosted by Shia leader Adbul-Aziz al-Hakim. The stakes are high for the United States, which hopes a strong and inclusive central government can stabilise the country so its forces can start drawing down in the summer.

Most of the discarded corpses were found in the capital and three in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Acting on an anonymous tip, police found a 6-by-8-metre hole in a empty field. It contained at least 27 dead men — most of them in their underwear — in Kamaliyah, a mostly Shia east Baghdad suburb, said an Interior Ministry official. He estimated they had been killed about three days ago.

Local residents offered scarves to help cover the bodies, which were laid out on the ground. Police guarded the site as members of a Shia militia dug for more corpses. An abandoned minibus containing 15 more bodies was found earlier on the main road between two mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighbourhoods — not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week.

At least 40 more bodies were recovered in Baghdad, including both Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods. — AP

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