Nine bullet riddled bodies found in Baghdad

The grisly find followed a surge of sectarian killings after the bombing last week of a Shiite shrine and reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques.

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

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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.