Bodies of 34 people found dumped in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-15 20:43

Iraqi authorities said on Sunday they had discovered the bodies of 34 people who had been killed execution-style then dumped in three locations.

Iraqi police said they had found the bodies of 13 people who were shot dead and left in a garbage dump in Baghdad.

A police official said the handcuffed men, mostly bearded, were shot in the head and left in an area of eastern Baghdad near where 14 other corpses were recently discovered.

"Residents of the area called us and said a garbage truck came early this morning and dumped the bodies and we confirmed it," a police official told Reuters.

Police in Iskandariya, a town in the lawless "triangle of death" area just south of Baghdad, said they found 11 bodies on Sunday. Four of the corpses had been beheaded and at least three were identified as Iraqi soldiers.

On Saturday, the corpses of 10 Iraqi soldiers killed by insurgents were found in the western city of Ramadi, the defense ministry said.

In a statement, it said the men had been dead for around two days. Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, is one of the key strongholds of the insurgency in Iraq.

Insurgents have killed scores of Iraqis they suspect of ties to U.S. troops or the Iraqi government and dumped their bodies.