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| Iraq-Jordan |
| At Least 17 Bodies Found in Iraqi Desert |
| 2005-06-10 |
| QAIM, Iraq (AP) - At least 17 bodies have been found near a town close to the Syrian border that is considered an insurgent hotbed. Eleven were shot in the head and another was beheaded. Witnesses, including an Associated Press reporter, said Friday that the 11 bodies had their hands tied behind their backs and were wearing civilian clothes. They were found in separate locations near a small hamlet called Jabab, about 19 miles east of Qaim. It was unclear when they were killed. The Interior Ministry also confirmed that another six bodies were found near Qaim outside the village of Fosfat. Interior ministry Maj. Falah al-Mahamdawi said the six men were found Thursday. They were also in civilian clothes and had civilian identification cards. It was unclear if the bodies had any relation to a group of about 20 Iraqi soldiers that have been missing from the Qaim area since late Tuesday. Qaim, an insurgent hotbed 200 miles west of Baghdad, has been the scene of numerous U.S. military and Iraqi army operations. Marines carried out two major operation in the area last month. A total of 11 Marines were killed in the campaigns. Al-Qaida in Iraq, the terror group led by Jordanian-born Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed in an Internet posting that it had abducted 36 Iraqi soldiers in western Iraq on Wednesday. The posting carried on a web site known to carry militant statements could not be independently verified. "A group of the infidel guards was arrested and investigated Wednesday," It said. The group added that the men confessed their crimes "against Sunnis and their loyalty to crusaders." To release them, it gave the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari a day to set free "Muslim women" held in Iraqi prisons. It did not elaborate. Capt. Ahmed Hamid said the soldiers disappeared Tuesday afternoon after leaving an Iraqi army base in two minibuses from Akashat, a remote village near the Syrian border about 110 kilometers 70 miles southwest of Qaim. Hamid, contacted by telephone at an Iraqi military base in Qaim, said the soldiers were wearing civilian clothes and traveling to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, for a vacation. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 It's thier way of making sure they are not scrutinized by Amnesty International for having Gulag's. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2005-06-10 11:31 |
| #1 I know it's wrong, but there's a little part of me thinking US troops should take, say, a couple weeks off and let the Shiites and Kurds take care of some... unfinished business. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-06-10 11:09 |