World

Death Toll Mounts In Iraq

May 17, 2005 / 8:04 AM EDT / CBS/AP

At least eight Iraqis were found shot near a Baghdad dam and a slain Iraqi Kurd was left in a garbage dump in northern Iraq, police said Monday, raising the number of bodies recovered in the past 48 hours to 50. The government vowed to find those responsible, saying insurgents were seeking to exploit sectarian rivalries to stir more bloodshed.

Elsewhere, mortar barrages, bombings and drive-by shootings killed at least 19 Iraqis, including nine soldiers who died when two car bombs exploded in quick succession at a crowded Baghdad market.

Batches of bodies, many blindfolded and bound, were found in various areas over the weekend, from a garbage-strewn vacant lot in Baghdad's Sadr City slum to a Latifiyah chicken farm south of the capital in a region dubbed the Triangle of Death.

The spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari condemned the killings and said security forces were determined to catch those responsible.

The attacks "aim to create sectarian fighting in the country because such clashes could bring more recruits to (militant) groups," spokesman Laith Kuba told The Associated Press. "The government is aware of that and will not let this plan succeed."

In other developments:

Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr came out of hiding Monday for the first time since his fighters clashed with American forces in Najaf and Baghdad in August, delivering a fiery speech demanding that coalition forces leave Iraq and that Saddam Hussein be punished.

Iraq's al-Qaida group claimed responsibility in an Internet statement on Monday for twin suicide attacks that killed four people and wounded 37 in northeast Baghdad the day before. The statement, the authenticity of which could not be verified, said one of the "the heroic lions" of the group killed many when he lunged into an Iraqi police convoy on Sunday that included Diyala provincial Governor Raed Rashid Hamid al-Mullah Jawad. The governor escaped unharmed, according to Iraqi officials.

Interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari paid a surprise visit to the home of Iraq's top Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in the holy city of Najaf, al-Sistani aide Maitham Faysal said. It was the leader's first meeting with al-Sistani since the new government was formed.

Iraqi forces captured car bomb maker Salim Youssef Khafif Hussein in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, the government said Monday. Hussein, also known as Agha Abu Dawoud, is said to have close links with Abu Talha, the head of operations in Mosul for Iraq's most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the statement said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, returning from a surprise trip to Iraq, sharply criticized Syria on Monday for what she called "unwillingness" to close its borders to terrorists she said are to blame for some of the violence in Iraq. She said the U.S. will try to enlist Syria's Arab neighbors to pressure Syria to clamp down.

The defense for Spc. Sabrina Harman, a former pizza shop manager from northern Virginia, began presenting its case Monday and wrapped up in the afternoon without calling Harman to the stand. She is the second soldier to be tried for allegedly mistreating detainees in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Few details were available on the motives behind the new wave of killings. Insurgents regularly target Iraqi security forces, government officials and others deemed to be collaborating with U.S.-led forces in the country. Others are kidnapped and killed in attempts to extort ransom. But there have also been a stream of retaliatory attacks between armed Sunni and Shiite groups.

Most of the bodies were found over the weekend, including two Iraqi journalists found in their car on a road south of Baghdad, 10 soldiers dumped in the battleground city of Ramadi, two truck drivers lying with nine other bodies in the chicken farm and a judge found nearby. Seven others were discovered elsewhere in the Latifiyah area, about 20 miles south of the capital.

Many of the victims had been blindfolded, bound and shot multiple times in the head. Most — including 13 found in Sadr City – had no documents to identify them.

Another body was found Monday, this time an Iraqi Kurd shot in the head and chest and left in a garbage dump in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police and witnesses said. An AP reporter saw the victim, identified by police as Najat Saadoun, with his hands tied behind his back.

Associated Press Television News also obtained footage Monday showing at least three more bodies, who police said had been shot in the head, being brought into a Baghdad hospital. Police said they were among six bodies found dumped near a dam in the capital's Shiite-dominated eastern Shaab neighborhood. Two other victims were found alive, but died in hospital later.

An influential association of Sunni Muslim clerics identified the victims as Sunnis, and said the two survivors told relatives they were seized by members of the Shiite-dominated government's own security forces and shot during a series of raids.

Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi denied the accusation, saying the killings were carried out by "terrorists" wearing military uniforms.

The grisly finds were a new twist in an endless stream of violence, with more than 460 people killed in a wave of bombings and ambushes since the April 28 announcement of the new Iraqi government.

Secretary Rice acknowledged the violence but urged patience as she met with Iraq's new leaders Sunday during a surprise trip meant to support the Iraqi government.

"This is a huge, historical change," she said. "I keep trying to emphasize to people that these things take time."

U.S. and Iraqi forces detained another 52 suspected militants in raids Sunday and Monday in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk.

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