Baquba: Iraqi authorities
uncovered a mass grave north of Baghdad on Saturday with 153
bodies of al Qaeda victims, many of them women, children and
members of the security forces, police said.
"Following a confession by a terrorist arrested two
weeks ago in Baquba we discovered a mass grave containing 153
bodies of people killed by al Qaeda in 2006 and 2007 " said
General Abdul Hussein al-Sahamari, the police chief of restive
Diyala province.
"The terrorist confessed that he and other members of
al Qaeda had murdered the victims during those years. There
are bodies of women, children, civilians, policemen and
soldiers," he added.
The mass grave is located in the agricultural region
of al-Tarf, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the provincial
capital of Baquba, which until 2008 was an al Qaeda
stronghold.
Sunni insurgents would erect roadblocks where they
stopped cars and murdered Shiites in the confessionally mixed
province.
PTI
