Police find 22 bodies in southeastern Iraq

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi police have found the bodies of 22 men who were handcuffed and shot dead in an area near the Iran border, officials said on Friday.

Police said the bodies were found near the town Badra in Wasit province, 69 miles southeast of Baghdad, on Thursday. The bodies have been taken to a local morgue, they said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051007/wl_nm/iraq_bodies_dc;_

[maddezmom]

1. AP: 539 Bodies Found in Iraq Since April

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago



BAGHDAD, Iraq - The 22 bodies, lined up in coffins in a mosque courtyard Friday, are as shriveled as ancient mummies after lying a month in the desert where they were dumped, bound and bullet-ridden. They were Sunni Arabs, rounded up from their Baghdad homes one night by men in police uniforms.


Relatives and neighbors in mourning are convinced they were killed by government-linked Shiite death squads they say are behind corpses that turn up nearly every day in and around the capital — two more on Friday. Now some Sunnis are vowing to take action to protect themselves.

At least 539 bodies have been found since Iraq's interim government was formed April 28 — 204 in Baghdad — according to an Associated Press count. The identities of many are unknown, but 116 are known to be Sunnis, 43 Shiites and one Kurd. Some are likely victims of crime — including kidnappings — rampant in some cities and as dangerous to Iraqis as political violence.

The count may be low since one or two bodies are found almost daily and are never reported.

Both minority-Sunnis and Shiites accuse one another of using death squads — and the accusations are deepening the Sunni-Shiite divide at a time when mistrust is already high over a new constitution that Iraqis will vote on in eight days. Shiites overwhelmingly support the charter, Sunnis oppose it, saying it will fragment Iraq.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051007/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_death_squads;_

[warrens]

2. Oh, boy, death squads = death spiral

We're going to be RUNNING over the border to get out of that hellhole in the not-too-distant future.

[struggle4progress]

3. The El Salvador option. eom