Iraq bloodshed continues as sectarian tensions increase

POLICE in Baghdad yesterday found the bodies of at least 85 men killed execution style in a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian killing, according to the Interior Ministry.

The bodies, many of them bound and bearing signs of torture, included 29 found by children, and 15 strangled men left in an abandoned vehicle, police said.

The bloodshed followed explosions in a teeming Shi’ite slum on Sunday in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded. It marked the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since February 22 when bombers destroyed an important Shi’ite Muslim shrine in Samarra, north of the capital.