Dozens of corpses unearthed in Najaf (Where Are The War Protestors NOW!?)

Gulf News ^ | 5 May, 2003

[Happy2BMe]

Iraqis clawed or shovelled through a mass grave yesterday to uncover dozens of corpses, some with blindfolds and hands tied, who appeared to have been executed during a 1991 Shiite uprising.

At least 20 bodies, including a few women, were unearthed from the site about 20 km north of Najaf. Many had plastic-coated identity cards in their rotting clothes. Combs, coins and watches lay among them, along with bullet casings.

Yellow twine coated with a coppery crust, which the diggers thought was blood, bound their wrists.

"This is one, this is one," said an Iraqi man who helped to dig, pointing out bones and clothes embedded in dirt near farms north of Najaf.

Around the lip of the hole where he was standing were 20 corpses that had already been extracted. They were wrapped in white sheets and their identity cards were placed in plastic bags and tied to the bundles.

The workers tried to keep the corpses intact. Some were skeletons in civilian clothes and shoes. Jawbones, thigh or arm bones and skulls with patches of hair jutted from the soil.

Once a full corpse appeared to have been retrieved and was placed on a white sheet, one worker, Alwan Khudayr, dipped his hands into the dirt and then patted down the remains to dust them with earth in a burial ritual.

Around the farmland area known as Khan Al Rubea were countless other mounds where Red Crescent workers and officials from a Shiite group, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said they suspected more corpses lay.

At a second site nearby, a skull with a red and white scarf tied around the eye sockets was found. Another skull lay near it.

"This is the tip of the iceberg in this country," said Captain Mike Urena, a U.S. Marines civil affairs officer who visited the second site yesterday and then turned it over to local Red Crescent authorities. "I am sure you will find more."

The city of Najaf is holy to Shiites, long oppressed by Saddam Hussain's government. Posters of missing men cover the walls, along graffiti reading: "Where are our missing people?"

After the 1991 Gulf War, tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed when Shiites in the south rose up against Saddam's government but saw their rebellion crushed.

Several mass graves have been found since Saddam was toppled on April 9, including another potential site dating back to the uprising found on Saturday near Babylon, south of Baghdad.

SCIRI was assisting in the excavation of the Najaf area at the request of local residents who went to its new offices in the city to seek help in finding missing family members.

Asaad Al Taee, a SCIRI official, said 25 corpses had been dug up on Saturday at the site. Ten of them were identified.

Farmers in the area said they had seen Iraqi security forces drive up in cars with men who were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs, and shoot them in the back of the head. The bodies then tumbled into the ditches.

They said they had been afraid to speak up while Saddam Hussain's forces were still in control. "Years ago we were planting here. We dug and found bodies," said one farmer, Khalid Aydan.

"Who can explain this to us?"

[Happy2BMe]

Dan Rather WILL report on this, right?

Susan Serendon WILL apologize, right?

[Rightly Biased]

Hold yer breath.


still holdin'













still holdin'




humph.....

[Happy2BMe]

Is that an Icthus?

[McGavin999]

They are finding these graves 20 and 30 at a time. Soon they will be finding the graves that hold hundreds. Too many people disappeared over the years and they have to be somewhere.

Although, I keep remembering the stories about the prisons where the people were thrown to the dogs.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Lead story on Al Jazera, no doubt.

[BrooklynGOP]

Bush probably planted those corpses.

[Happy2BMe]

"They are finding these graves 20 and 30 at a time."

And the silence from Hollywood, Barbara Streisand, Martin Sheen, and all of the Democratic leadership is deafening!

[Happy2BMe]

"Lead story on Al Jazera, no doubt."

Al Jazera is about as anti-American as Hillary Clinton and Tom Daschle.

Why would they want the truth to surface on how GOOD IT WAS to liberate Iraq from all of this?

[dinok]

We are all so upset by this...yet the same thing happens in China and we finance it by buying products made by slave Chinese labor.

We feel so good for ourselves now dont we...Hey, lets elect another democrat and have another 8 years of stupidity.

Will the next Monica please stand up!!!

[Grampa Dave]

Bumping!

The NY Slimes was worried about the artifacts disappearing, but they have zero concerns about the mass murders that have been committed for 3 decades.

[Jorge]

We are all so upset by this...yet the same thing happens in China and we finance it by buying products made by slave Chinese labor.

Huh? Seems to me that buying products made by Chinese labor provides an income that is a reason to keep them alive...not for mass executions.

[Happy2BMe]

"The NY Slimes was worried about the artifacts disappearing, but they have zero concerns about the mass murders that have been committed for 3 decades."

WHOA! Thank you so much (really) for such an excellent (and truthful) picture of the true liberal heart of America!

The Libs are more (deeply saddened) by the missing piles of clay and gold from the museum than they ever will be about the tens of thousands of innocents raped, tortured, maimed and murdered.

Your analogy speaks volumes and volumes and really tells the whole story on Hollywood and the libs.

Superb!

[FreedomCalls]

Oh they'll come out all right. This story will re-surface in a few years and it will become a story about how the Marines massacred innocent Iraqis and then buried them to keep it quiet. There is historical precedent. Ref: the Katyn forest massacre.

[Happy2BMe]

You may have something on blaming Americans later for the mass murder burial sites.

It troubles me that the Marines are turning these sites over to the Red Crescent.

This is tantamount to giving Hillary the personal files of the entire Republican Party.

I hope our guys are taking tons and tons of pictoral and electronic documentation at each one of these found.

Let's hope we're being smarter on these finds than we were on neglecting to capture tons of war crime documentation before it was looted.

[Jorge]

The NY Slimes was worried about the artifacts disappearing, but they have zero concerns about the mass murders that have been committed for 3 decades.

Between Hitlery, and the NYT I am starting to hate NY more and more. Didn't these creeps learn anything from 9/11?

[Ethyl]

The NY Slimes was worried about the artifacts disappearing, but they have zero concerns about the mass murders that have been committed for 3 decades.

And now that it has been proven the 90% of the artifacts have been found and the rest were stolen by only those who knew where to find them or museum directors, what will the ny slimes say now?????????? nuthin.

[Grampa Dave]

We have the great paradox of the liberals whining and moaning about pieces of clay that might have been missing.

Then, they ignore the mass murder graves that are being found all over Iraq.

Have you heard a single left wing Follywood lunatic who was so concerned about us killing innocent Iraqis say one word about these mass murder graves.

Have you heard the Da$$hole or the 9 fairies wanting to be president say one word about these mass murder graves?

[NormsRevenge]

Nice tagline! ;-)

[Happy2BMe]

"Have you heard a single left wing Follywood lunatic who was so concerned about us killing innocent Iraqis say one word about these mass murder graves."

Let's not forget the media downplaying it also . .

"Have you heard the Da$$hole or the 9 fairies wanting to be president say one word about these mass murder graves?

We Wish To Make An Announcement . . We Don't Want To Hear Another Single Word About Liberating Iraq (And DON'T EVER MENTION THOSE MASS GRAVES AGAIN!)

The First Annual National Idiots Anonomous (NIA) Meeting Participants

[Grampa Dave]

The NY Slimes is the reason why the Hildebea$t was elected.

The NY Slimes has turned away from the mass murders committed by Saddom and Castro for over 4 decades.

The NY Slimes provided cover for the first communists right up to Gorby and all of the violence they inflicted on innocents.

Yet the NY Slimes is considered by many New Yorkers to be the greatest newspaper in the world. I believe that they are the most dangerous of all.