Mass graves discovered in Iraq as police reappear to quell mayhem

IRAQIS dug corpses from a mass grave yesterday and police reappeared in Baghdad, as Iraq grappled with the brutality of Saddam Hussein's rule and the lawless aftermath of the US-led invasion that ended it.

US President George W Bush said it was only a matter of time before American troops find the weapons of mass destruction whose alleged existence he used to justify the war on Iraq.

Grislier evidence of the nature of Saddam's iron-fisted policies emerged at a farmland site near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Najaf, where Iraqis clawed through earth to uncover a score more bodies, some with blindfolds and hands tied, of men and women apparently executed during a 1991 Shi'ite uprising.