Around 30 bodies found in Iraq mass grave

The US soldiers discover the bodies in a mass grave north of Baghdad of people buried nearly 8 months ago.

US soldiers have discovered around 30 bodies in a mass grave north of Baghdad of people buried nearly eight months ago, the American military said on Monday.

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The grave was found on Sunday south of the town of Muqdadiyah in the restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

"The coalition force was unable to determine whether or not the bodies had been tortured at the time of death," the military said in a statement.

"All the bodies were badly decomposed and appear to have been at the site nearly eight months."

Diyala is one of the most dangerous regions of Iraq where US and Iraqi forces are engaged in sustained military assaults against Al-Qaeda militants.

Human rights groups believe there are hundreds of mass graves in Iraq, mostly of people killed during the regime of Saddam Hussein.