Mass grave unearthed in southern Baghdad

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
59 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - A mass grave filled with badly decomposed bodies was unearthed Saturday in southern Baghdad, where relatives of people missing in the neighborhood gathered at a mosque in hopes of learning the fate of their loved ones.


It was the third mass grave found in Iraq this month.

The remains were found in Baghdad's mostly Sunni Dora neighborhood, placed in black plastic bags and transferred to a Shiite mosque nearby, according to a police officer at the mosque. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.

An Associated Press photographer at the al-Kazimain mosque counted 33 plastic bags, and police said each bag held the remains of one victim. But the condition of the remains — severely decomposed — meant that it was impossible to verify the number of bodies.

Some of the bags were opened, revealing body parts, bones and scraps of clothing. One of the bags contained a prosthetic leg.

Relatives of people who had been missing in the area crowded into a courtyard outside the mosque, where the remains were laid out. A woman in a black Muslim abaya cried as the bags were opened.

At one point, eight bags of remains were placed into a single plain wooden coffin, for burial.

Earlier this month, U.S. and Iraqi officials said they found 29 bodies in the Lake Tharthar area of the once restive western Anbar province. And another 17 victims were discovered in a brushy area near a school in Hashimiyat, northeast of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi TV station said Saturday that one of its reporters was kidnapped a day earlier on his way to work in central Baghdad. The station has already lost two reporters to the violence here that often targets the media.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi, a 28-year-old reporter for the Iraqi satellite channel al-Baghdadiyah, disappeared Friday, according to an editor at the channel. The editor who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.

A colleague phoned al-Zaidi around noon Friday, and a stranger answered his cell phone. "Forget Muntadhar," the stranger said, according to the editor.

"This is the act of gangs, because all of Muntadhar's reports are moderate and unbiased," the editor told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Al-Baghdadiyah TV broadcasts from Cairo, Egypt, and is often critical of the Iraqi government and the U.S. military presence here. It is perceived as pro-Sunni.

Iraqi journalists working for local or international media frequently come under threats from insurgents because of their reporting or their affiliation with foreign organizations.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 123 journalists and 42 media support workers — translators, drivers, fixers and guards — have been killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003. About 85 percent of those deaths were Iraqis, the group said.

In addition, the organization says at least 51 journalists have been kidnapped in Iraq since 2004.

Neither CPJ count includes al-Zaidi, whose whereabouts were unknown.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military said its troops killed seven suspects and detained 10 in raids across central and northern Iraq.

In one operation northeast of Samarra, U.S. troops discovered that three of the suspects killed were wearing suicide vests, the military said. A weapons cache and bomb-making materials were also found, it said.