Police finds 40 bodies dumped in Baghdad

Police have found bodies of a least 40 men who were shot and discarded in various parts of the capital in the past 24 hours.

Police have found bodies of a least 40 men who were shot and discarded in various parts of the capital in the past 24 hours, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

HT Image

The grim finds underscored fears that Sunday's deadly explosions in a Shiite slum would unleash a new round of sectarian killing between Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims and minority Sunnis.

The bodies were found in both Sunni and Shiite areas, many of them among Baghdad's most dangerous neighbourhoods, said Maj Falah al-Mohammedawi, an official at the ministry, which oversees police.

A number of bodies -- including four strung-up from electricity pylons -- were discovered in Sadr City where car bombs and mortar fire killed at least 58 people and injured more than 200 at nightfall on Sunday, al-Mohammedawi said.