At least 46 bodies found in Iraq
In latest discovery, a dozen men executed in Baghdad

CNN | May 16, 2005

The bodies of at least 46 Iraqis were found over the weekend in Iraq, including a dozen executed men Sunday in Baghdad, police said.

Eight bodies were discovered in northeastern Baghdad's Al-Sha'ab area. The Iraqis' hands were tied behind their backs, and they were blindfolded and shot in the head, police said.

Another four Iraqi males were found dead in southeastern Baghdad's Ur neighborhood near a mosque.

Police said two men survived the shooting and were hospitalized for treatment. The survivors reportedly told police that men dressed as members of the Iraqi army arrested them and took them to a remote area, where they were shot.

Authorities also are investigating the killings of at least 34 others over the weekend.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday expressed its concern about the "high numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq." It noted that scores of Iraqis have died in car bombings in Baghdad and that fighting in western Iraq had forced hundreds, including women, children and the elderly, to flee their homes and seek refuge.

The Red Cross called on all those involved in the fighting to respect international humanitarian law.

On Saturday the bodies of 10 Iraqi soldiers were discovered in the volatile western city of Ramadi, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.

On Sunday, police found the bodies of 11 Iraqis in two trucks stopped on a road in Latifiya, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

The men, laborers at a poultry farm, were shot to death, and four were beheaded, police said.

The truck drivers were arrested, police said.

In addition, the bodies of 13 men, apparently tortured and shot to death, were found in a garbage dump Sunday in Baghdad, police said.

The men were wearing only underwear and shirts, and those with beards had been shaved, morgue officials said.

Report points at Russians

A U.S. Senate report out Monday accuses top Russian politicians, including advisers to President Vladmir Putin, of engaging in illicit transactions with Iraq during the U.N. oil-for-food program.

The report found that Saddam Hussein's regime allocated 76 million barrels of crude oil to Vladmir Zhirinovsky, Russia's deputy parliament speaker, and his political party between 1997 and 2002. The report estimated that Zhirinovsky profited by about $9 million in commissions after assigning rights to companies that could sell the oil on the open market.

It also said top Russian officials -- including Alexander Voloshin, a former Putin adviser and onetime Kremlin chief of staff -- and the United Russia party, a pro-Putin group, received oil allocations for 90 million barrels between 1999 and 2003. Those allocations yielded profits of $3 million once the shipments were steered through Russian companies, the report concluded.

The report is from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The subcommittee didn't seek rebuttals from Zhirinovsky or Voloshin.

Zhirinovsky told a Moscow radio station Monday that he hadn't received any money from Iraq.

Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan told investigators that Iraq believed the Russian allocations were providing "compensation for support" shown, especially at the United Nations, where Russia sits on the Security Council.

Saddam once instructed his officials to "show gratitude" to Russia when it threatened to use its veto to thwart a U.S.-British plan to toughen sanctions in 2000, the report said.

Other developments

Gunmen killed two Iraqi journalists working for a Kuwaiti newspaper Monday south of the capital, police said. The journalists' driver also was slain. The three worked for the Kuwaiti Al-Rai journal, authorities said.

Five Iraqi soldiers were killed Monday when a roadside bomb exploded outside Baquba, north of Baghdad, police said. Seven soldiers and three civilians also were wounded.

A mortar crashed into Baghdad's University of Mustancarya School of Engineering on Monday, killing a security guard and wounding two female students, eyewitnesses said. Also, an Iraqi civilian was killed and another wounded in a drive-by shooting Sunday in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi government said.

The Iraqi government said Monday that it had captured a bomb maker in Mosul after earlier arresting a financier for the explosive expert's cell group. Iraqi security forces caught Salim Yussef Ghafif Huseyn in a raid last week. Huseyn works with a group associated with militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network, the Iraqi government said. The financier, Abu Fateh, was detained in April, the government said.

An aide to Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric was gunned down Sunday in Baghdad, police said. Sheikh Qasim al-Ghiri and a nephew died in a drive-by shooting. Al-Ghiri was a top aide to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of the Shiites and a major figure in Iraqi politics. No further details were immediately available.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday, praising Iraqi authorities and U.S. troops. Rice is the first senior foreign leader to visit Iraq since the interim government was created through January elections.

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