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Baghdad Morgue Struggles To Cope With Flow Of Bodies
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5-5-2006 | Oliver Poole

Posted on 05/04/2006 7:33:59 PM PDT by blam

Baghdad morgue struggles to cope with flow of bodies

By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 05/05/2006)

The month after the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra was the bloodiest in Baghdad's modern history, with 1,294 bodies arriving at the city's morgue.

Ninety per cent had been shot, said the facility's deputy director, Dr Qaiss Hassan, as official figures were released of the carnage that came after the destruction of the revered Shia holy site on Feb 22.

A coffin arrives at the morgue

There was a wave of tit-for-tat sectarian killings as Shia mobs rampaged through the Iraqi capital, attacking mosques and targeting Sunnis, some of whom then carried out reprisal killings.

Last month, although the numbers dropped from the record set in March, the morgue still had to deal with the arrival of 1,115 bodies.

The figures indicate that in just two months as many people were killed in Baghdad alone as the total number of US troops to have died in the conflict so far.

Under Iraqi medical law the morgue does not deal with any person who has died from natural causes as they can have their death certificate issued by a doctor.

According to Dr Hassan, the period since the Samarra bombing has seen an average of 35 to 50 bodies delivered every day. At one point freezer trucks had to be brought in and parked outside as the facility's storage rooms could not cope with the numbers.

Before the 2003 invasion the daily average of bodies the morgue received was between seven and 10, he said.

What has been particularly disturbing about the bodies being found across the city is not only the number but also how many show signs of having been horrifically tortured before they died.

Autopsy pictures of one man, Mohannad al-Azawi, a Sunni, showed his face covered in purple welts, drill holes in his legs and face and both shoulders broken.

He had been working in his pet shop in southern Baghdad when he was grabbed by a carload of armed men. His body was found dumped at a sewage plant.

Four brothers living in New Baghdad, a working-class district, were taken from the home they shared with their wives. Their bullet-ridden bodies were found in a drainage ditch with their toes and fingers cut off.

According to mortuary workers such cases are not the exception, but increasingly the norm.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baghdad; bodies; civilwar; cope; flow; morgue; of; struggles; to; with

1 posted on 05/04/2006 7:34:00 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Isn't this a recycled story? I remember reading one just like it a year or so ago, about how bodies were stacking up in morgues in Baghdad.

Only thing, it was a complete lie.

2 posted on 05/04/2006 7:37:13 PM PDT by sinkspur ( I didn't know until just now that it was Barzini all along.)
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To: blam
"Before the 2003 invasion the daily average of bodies the morgue received was between seven and 10, he said."

It's a good thing no one was killed when Saddam was in power.

3 posted on 05/04/2006 7:39:04 PM PDT by norwaypinesavage
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To: blam
Yes, the job of a mortician in Baghdad was so much easier under Saddam's regime. Saddam and his psycho sons were much more tidy in disposing the bodies of their victims using bulldozers and open pits, wood chippers, and acid baths. They didn't burden the local mortuaries.

The liberal media ghouls long for the good ole days.

4 posted on 05/04/2006 8:00:14 PM PDT by Unmarked Package
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To: norwaypinesavage

Nope.

In fact, I have it on good authority that they were just happily flying kites around Bagdad before the EVIL US showed up.


5 posted on 05/04/2006 8:22:58 PM PDT by lonestar67
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To: blam
And the drive-by media cheers on:

Murders, and bodies, and death - Hooray!

Murders, and bodies, and death - Hooray!

Murders, and bodies, and death - Hooray!

6 posted on 05/04/2006 9:38:56 PM PDT by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
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To: blam
Autopsy pictures of one man, Mohannad al-Azawi, a Sunni, showed his face covered in purple welts, drill holes in his legs and face and both shoulders broken

Paybacks a b*tch!
7 posted on 05/04/2006 10:37:37 PM PDT by MedicalMess
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