Nine bullet-riddled bodies found in Baghdad

Nine bullet-riddled bodies, including a Sunni Muslim tribal sheik, were found Tuesday morning off a road southeast of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said Tuesday.

Photo: Nine bullet-riddled bodies found in Baghdad

The bodies were brought to the Baqouba General Hospital, said Dr. Ahmed Foad Ghaidan, head of the facility's forensic department.

The Iraqi army found the bodies near two burned minibuses in an open area off the road from Baghdad into Iraq's strife prone Diyala province, Diyala police said. The victims included Sheik Hamid Irbat Ghazi, of the influential Mahamdeh tribe, and two of his nephews, police said.

The grisly find followed a surge of sectarian killings after the bombing last week of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra and reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques. Tension between the majority Shiites and minority Sunnis remains high, reports the AP.

I.L.