Baghdad, Nov 08: The US-led coalition said today there are 263 reported mass graves of people executed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, with 40 sites so far confirmed to contain evidence of systematic killings. "There are 263 mass graves, including approximately 40 of them confirmed" to hold evidence of systematic killings, said Sandra Hodgkinson, Director of the Office for Human Rights Transitional Justice (OHRTJ) within the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) ruling Iraq.
She said the number of people missing as a result of atrocities committed by the Saddam regime, which gained power in 1979, was estimated to be anywhere between 300,000 and 1.3 million, according to various sources.
Hodgkinson told a conference on investigating mass graves that teams of foreign forensic experts were expected to start working on sites in Iraq in early January.
Bureau Report