Eight tortured bodies found in Baghdad

Eight bodies with signs of torture were found in Baghdad today, more apparent victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.

The bodies of seven men and one woman were all found in eastern Baghdad neighbourhoods.

They were blindfolded, and had their hands and legs bound, police said.

US commanders said since the start of Ramadan, which Sunnis started observing last Saturday and Shiites on Monday, there had been a spike in sectarian violence in Iraq, centred on the capital.

In the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad, a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, a funeral procession was held for Abdul-Karim Abdul-Wahid al-Shamari.

The man, one of al-Sadr’s lieutenants, was killed last night on his way back to Baghdad from Najaf, said police Col. Kadhim Abbas Hamza said.