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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Overflowing morgue testament to Iraq's mayhem |
| 2005-07-31 |
| From Reuters, an article by Luke Baker, posted on Khilafah If anyone had any lingering doubts about the full extent of violence in Iraq, they need only visit Baghdad's morgue. The fridges and autopsy rooms of the beige stone block are crammed full of corpses, some of them so badly mutilated or decomposed that identification is nearly impossible. Every day, around 30 new bodies arrive, the latest victims of a two-year wave of war, crime and insurgency that has left coroners struggling to keep up with the chaos. .... The situation in Baghdad has grown so bad that corpses not claimed from the morgue after a few weeks are now being buried in makeshift graves to make room for new arrivals. Since the beginning of the year, more than 400 unclaimed or unidentified bodies have had to be dealt with in this way. They are buried by municipal authorities in Baghdad or by a Shi'ite Muslim volunteer group that takes the corpses to a cemetery in Najaf, a religious city south of the capital. Pictures are taken of the bodies beforehand, and as many other details as possible are collected, so that if relatives do eventually turn up, the deceased can be tracked down. .... Each day, dozens of families arrive at the morgue looking for missing relatives. They view pictures of the dead on a computer, trying to identify loved ones. If the pictures are unclear, they are allowed to trawl through the morgue's vaults. .... every month up to 20 percent of the bodies are unclaimed ... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #9 Article: The situation in Baghdad has grown so bad that corpses not claimed from the morgue after a few weeks are now being buried in makeshift graves to make room for new arrivals. Since the beginning of the year, more than 400 unclaimed or unidentified bodies have had to be dealt with in this way. Some of these cadavers are those of dead foreigners (terrorists or civilians). Others are the remains of domestic terrorists whose relatives and associates don't really want to claim them because of the danger of being identified for the terrorist supporters that they are. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-07-31 14:02 |
| #8 Sgt. Mom Sorry, I tried to post this link, but.. In Iraq, a grim job in the service of Allah http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0729/p06s01-woiq.html |
| Posted by: SwissTex 2005-07-31 12:48 |
#7 Sgt. Mom | #6 I'm perfectly willing to admit the jihadis are killing innocent people, and that their murderous campaign has been horrific. | So am I. But Mikey's not...
Posted by: Raj
2005-07-31 12:08
| |
| #5 Odd. Another Mikey post that blows past the theory I had. Since the jihadis are the ones doing most of the killing, what's his point here? We're not the ones who keep quoting from jihad cheerleaders. I'm perfectly willing to admit the jihadis are killing innocent people, and that their murderous campaign has been horrific. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-07-31 11:54 |
| #4 Weren't the morgues a bit busy in France, last year at this time? Mayhem? Or human indifference to the cause. |
| Posted by: Spinegum Ulaiper9420 2005-07-31 11:29 |
| #3 What a lovely fate for the Sunni jihadis -- either buried in an unmarked grave, or in a Shia one. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-07-31 10:48 |
| #2 Interview on NPR a couple of weeks ago (sorry, can't ferret out a link or remember the name) with an Iraqi man who has a little organization who do just that--- clain the unclaimed bodies and give a proper burial. Seems to be actually a rather saintly sort, and had been doing it for years--- even wrangled a concession from Saddam's gangster-government to do so. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2005-07-31 09:54 |
| #1 Perhaps no one claims the bodies of the 'insurgents'. Remember, some of the parents of 'foreign fighters' think their kids are somewhere else. Who would come to claim criminals? Some people might be afraid they'd be rolled up if they showed up. Maybe "up to 20%" of those killed are the bad guyz. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-07-31 09:33 |