Iraq Watch: March 14, 2006

Nearly 90 Bodies, Victims of Sectarian Strife, Discovered Across Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 87 executed corpses have been discovered throughout the war-ravaged nation of Iraq within the last day authorities announced on Tuesday.

The largest single grisly find came in the eastern Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Kamaliyah where some 29 men were found stacked in a shallow mass grave. The 18-by-24-foot grave was discovered by a group of Iraqi youths playing soccer.

Across town, in a predominately-Sunni district of western Baghdad, 15 more men — all strangled to death — were found discarded in an abandoned minibus.

Additionally, overnight Monday, at least 40 executed bodies were discovered in and around the capital city.

Three more bodies were found in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Despite repeated calls for calm and unity from Iraq's clerical elite, sectarian reprisal slayings have been on the increase since the February 22 bombing of the holy Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra.

The latest round of violence follows Sunday's car bombing in Baghdad's Sadr City — a bustling Shiite slum and base of support for maverick cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — which killed at least 58 people and wounded over 200.

In an effort to combat more potential bloodshed, Iraqi authorities announced Tuesday that a vehicle ban would be implemented beginning Wednesday night and ending Thursday afternoon. The driving restrictions coincide with the scheduled inaugural meeting of Iraq's new parliament Thursday.

In other violence Tuesday, a roadside bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims near Baqouba killed one and injured seven.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of two U.S. soldiers, assigned to the 2-28 Brigade Combat Team, who were killed as a result of "enemy action" yesterday in the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq.