BAGHDAD, Iraq - Officials have found 56 bodies bearing signs of torture scattered around the Iraqi capital in the past 24 hours, all apparent victims of sectarian death squads, police said Friday.

An Iraqi soldier stands guard at a checkpoint in central Baghdad, Friday Nov. 3, 2006. The Iraqi government has banned all vehicle traffic on Fridays fearing attacks on worshippers. [AP]

The bodies, all men between 20 and 45 years of age, were found between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday, said police Lt. Mohammed Khayon.

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All wore civilian clothes and had been bound at the wrists and ankles, Khayon said. He said the bodies showed signs of having been tortured, a common practice among religious extremists who seize victims from private homes or from cars and buses traveling the capital's dangerous streets.

Such murders almost always go unsolved and Khayon said the police had no solid information on who the victims were, where and when they were killed, or by whom.

Shiite militiamen have been blamed for many of Baghdad's sectarian slayings, which exploded in number following the February bombing of an important Shiite shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra.