Hundreds of human remains found in makeshift morgue

Hundreds of human remains were today discovered in a “makeshift morgue” by British soldiers in southern Iraq.

The skulls and bundles of bone in strips of military uniform, were dumped in plastic bags and unsealed hardboard coffins in an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of Al Zubayr.

It was impossible to say how long the remains had lain there but the grim discovery will now be investigated by forensic specialists as possible evidence of atrocities perpetrated by the Iraqi regime.

The coffins were stacked five deep in a warehouse, and a neighbouring building contained apparent cells and catalogues of photographs of the dead, most of whom had died from gunshot wounds to the head.

Others were mutilated beyond recognition, their faces burned and swollen in the faded black and white photographs.

Outside stood what one soldier described as “a purpose-built shooting gallery“.

A tiled foot-high plinth stood in a courtyard, with the brickwork behind it riddled with bullets.

Behind that lay a drainage ditch.

Inside the warehouse, one of the bags and coffins contained an identity card written in Arabic, while military webbing and boot soles were visible in others.

Human skulls, their teeth broken and missing, looked out from other bags, bundled into the coffins.