Baghdad: 8 suspected death squad victims found

Bombs kill policeman in capital; two US Marines killed in Anbar province Sunday.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
iraq violence 298 88 (photo credit: )
iraq violence 298 88
(photo credit: )
A pair of roadside bombs exploded near a bank in central Baghdad early Monday, killing one policeman, while the bullet-riddled bodies of eight men were found dumped around the capital overnight. Two US Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 were killed in fighting Sunday in restive Anbar province, the third and fourth killed over the past two days in the volatile region west of Baghdad. North of the capital, residents of a town where weekend revenge killings between Sunnis and Shiites left scores dead huddled at home as security forces moved in. US troops detained three police officials in the area for failing to intervene in the killings, a police captain said. The first bomb on Baghdad's Rasheed Street went off around 7:30 a.m., the second following an hour later after reporters and police had arrived on the scene. Iraqi insurgents have increasingly used secondary bombings to inflict further casualties on onlookers and rescue workers. Two other roadside bomb attacks on Iraqi police patrols early Monday injured seven people. Two of the bodies dumped in Baghdad were found in a trash pit in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite slum of about two million people where radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia draws much of its support. The identities of the victims, estimated to be in their early 20s and found bound and blindfolded, were not known, police Capt. Mohannad al-Bahadli said. Six other bodies, similarly bound and shot, were found in other Baghdad districts, police said. Each day in Baghdad brings the discovery of up to scores of such victims, most often pulled off the street or abducted from their homes by roving sectarian death squads. Those killings have steadily worsened over recent months as Iraq's Shiite majority battles to assert its authority over the Sunni minority who held power under Saddam Hussein's former regime. Secterian fighting exploded over the weekend in and around Balad, 80 kilometres, north of Baghdad, sparked by the slayings of 17 Shiite workers late last week. Suspected Shiite militias set up roadblocks targeting Sunnis, killing 63 people. Extra police flooded into the city and residents were staying home from work and school on Monday, people in the area said.