Iraqi police find 25 bodies in Baghdad overnight

Iraqi police found 25 bodies discarded in various parts of Baghdad overnight, the Interior Ministry said Thursday, part of a wave of apparent sectarian killing.

Photo: Iraqi police find 25 bodies in Baghdad overnight

The victims, all men who had been shot, were discovered between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday in both Shiite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods, said Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi, an official with the ministry that oversees police. The men were in civilian clothes and many had their hands bound.

The capital, where Sunnis and Shiites live side-by-side, has suffered a surge of sectarian killing since bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine in Samarra on Feb. 22 and ripped apart markets in a Baghdad Shiite slum on Sunday. U.S. and Iraqi officials blamed insurgents bent on fomenting civil war for both attacks, reports the AP.

I.L.