|
Baghdad: Iraqi security forces found about 100 badly decomposed bodies in a mass grave north of Baghdad, the US military said on Saturday, one of the largest such finds in the country for months.
US and Iraqi security forces said it was not clear who was responsible for the grave near Khalis, 80 km north of Baghdad, or when the victims had been killed.
"Initial reports indicate it may contain the remains of approximately 100 people," said US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson.
Iraqi police said they suspected those in the grave were likely to have been killed some time after the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussain.
Meanwhile, thousands of people took to the streets Saturday in Basra, protesting deteriorating security in the southern city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety last December.
It was day of violence as well as political unrest in Iraq: Police in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad reported two separate bombings in which six people were killed, and officers also found 13 bullet-ridden bodies.
In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the urban centre of an oil-rich region, Shiite groups have been wrestling for control.
Residents are becoming increasingly alarmed, saying that killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over responsibility for Basra at the end of last year.
In February, two journalists working for CBS were kidnapped in the city. One was released but the other, a Briton, is still being held.
As many as 5,000 people demonstrated near the Basra police command headquarters Saturday, demanding that the police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of joint military-police operation, Lieutenant t General Mohan Al Fireji, resign.
Many carried banners, decrying the killing of women, workers, academics and scientists. Dozens of women were slain in Basra by religious extremists last year because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings."
Saturday's protesters, overwhelmingly men, came from several Shiite political movements, including the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its militia wing, known as the Badr Brigade.
Khalaf said at a news conference later that "today's demonstration was a natural right of the citizens and the political parties to express their opinions."
|
