Officials to 'crack down on killers' of 41 Iraqis

Bassem Mroue, Baghdad

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

Few details were available on the possible reasons for the killings.

Insurgents regularly target Iraqi security forces, government officials and others deemed to be collaborating with US-led forces in the country. Others are kidnapped and killed to extort lucrative ransoms from their families.

There has also been a stream of retaliatory attacks between armed Sunni and Shi'ite groups.

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 said.

"The government is aware of that and will not let this plan succeed."

Over the weekend the bodies of at least 41 people were found. They included 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. At least three more bodies, who police said had been shot in the head, were brought into a Baghdad hospital.

The bodies had been dumped near a dam in the capital's eastern Shaab neighbourhood, police said.

Another body was found yesterday, 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.

More than 450 people have been killed in a wave of bombings and ambushes launched since the April 28 announcement of the new Iraqi government.

Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and at least four people wounded after a mortar and roadside bomb attack was launched against a fire station in Khan Bani Saad, a town about 17 miles north-east of Baghdad, said Police Col. Mudafar Mohammed.

A roadside bomb killed four soldiers who had raced to the town's fire station, which had come mortar fire attack, Mohammed said.