65 Likely Death-Squad Victims Found in and Around Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Sixty-five bodies have been discovered in and around Baghdad, Iraqi police said yesterday. One was beheaded, and the majority were tortured before being shot in the head.The corpses are believed to be the latest victims of the Sunni and Shiite death squads tormenting the city: Forty-five of the bodies were found in Sunni areas, and the rest were discovered in the Shiite-dominated east of the city, a number of them thrown on trash heaps.All had been bound or showed signs of torture and had been shot, Thayer Mahmud of the city’s police said. Five of the dead men were bakers believed targeted for providing bread for the Iraqi army.Four, one of them a woman, were also recovered from the Tigris just south of the capital, while the beheaded corpse was in a town nearby.Discoveries of dumped and mutilated bodies have become almost a daily occurrence since the bombing in February of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, a revered Shiite shrine, further fueled Iraq’s sectarian tensions ignited by the American occupation.But yesterday’s grim toll was notable in its number and in what it indicated about “Operation Forward Together,” a month-long security operation in Baghdad involving 30,000 American-Iraqi forces that began in July.American military commanders had originally said they believed the number of killings in the city had been cut by 40%. But it emerged last week that the number of bodies delivered to Baghdad’s morgue in August, 1,536, is only a limited drop from the previous month. Morgue officials have said about 90% of the bodies that they receive are victims of violence.The United Nations has estimated that around 100 people a day are being killed in this sectarian war.Many of these, however, are never found and disappear into the Tigris or Baghdad’s sewage pipes. Last month, the 4th Infantry Division, the American force responsible for the capital, started repairing exposed holes in the city’s antiquated sewage system.Officers said that would not cut the number of murders but may help families locate their missing loved ones.A particularly bloody day was further compounded when car bomb and mortar attacks killed a further 32 and injured 81, bringing the body count for the 24 hours to almost 100.The worst attack happened outside the main headquarters of Baghdad’s traffic police department, killing 19 and wounding 62. The American military also announced the deaths of two of its soldiers, one in southern Iraq and one in Anbar province.The bloodshed came a day after the U.S.Government Accountability Office issued a report that warned the American-backed political process, which saw two national elections last year and a referendum of a new constitution, may have contributed to the country’s sectarian problems.The body reports to Congress and is able to draw an unpublished American government report. It cited a “Defense Intelligence Agency” finding that “the December 2005 election appeared to heighten sectarian tensions and polarize sectarian divides.”Iraqis voted on largely sectarian and ethnic lines in the election, which led to a Parliament dominated by the Shiite religious party. Sunnis also voted overwhelmingly against the constitution as they oppose Iraq becoming a federal state.

65 Likely Death-Squad Victims Found in and Around Baghdad

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