Bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shi’ites found in field

THE bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shi’ites taken off a bus and executed last month while seeking work at a US base have been found in a field near the volatile city of Mosul, police yesterday said.

Police said insurgents shot the men, who ranged in age from 14 to 20, on December 8 after stopping their two minibuses about 30 miles west of Mosul.

Their hands were tied behind their back and each was shot in the head, police said. All of the men were Shi’ite Muslims from Baghdad’s northern neighbourhood of Kadhimiya who had been hired by an Iraqi contractor to work at a US base in Mosul.