Mass Grave Containing 300 Bodies Found In Iraq

Islam Online ^ | July 06 2003

[knighthawk]

HATRA, Iraq, July 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The remains of about 300 people, believed to be Kurdish victims of the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein, have been found in a mass grave in northern Iraq Saturday, July 5.

According to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent, bone, hair and bits of clothing were clearly visible at the bottom of a gaping hole five meters (16.5 feet) wide in a barren desert plain near the town of Hatra, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad.

"So far they have taken out 50 bodies out of about 300," a local farmer, Ali Rahim, told AFP at the site, referring to Kurds and American troops who he said began excavating the pit Thursday, July 3.

New digs and probes into the dried earth revealed at least nine more sets of remains, including long tufts of light brown hair and scraps of flower-printed scarves and veils, which are believed to be those of Kurdish women and children executed by Saddam's regime in 1988.

Rahim said his friend, Khalil Eid, a 55-year-old shepherd, was witness to the mass burial back in 1988.

"My friend witnessed Iraqi army cars loaded with bodies of women and children, and the bodies were dumped here," Rahim said, adding that Eid was not now in town.

He added that the Kurds who arrived at the grave site beginning last month were peshmerga fighters aligned with Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Kurdish Television, which acts as a mouthpiece for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), reported Friday, July 4, that the grave had been found by Kurdish residents with the help of U.S. forces controlling the region.

The region suffered under an anti-Kurd campaign by the regime in 1988 and 1989, which the Kurds refer to as Anfal and that included the infamous chemical attack on the town of Halabja.

The pits are among the dozens of mass graves uncovered throughout the country since Saddam's ouster by invading U.S.-led coalition forces on April 9.

The United States has asked a number of countries for help in locating Iraq's mass graves, identifying victims and securing evidence.

The Swedish foreign ministry announced in late June that Stockholm would send a delegation to Iraq to lay the groundwork for experts to travel to the country in August to locate mass graves and identify victims.

The ministry then said that more than 40 mass graves had been found in Iraq.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[facedown]

On and on and on...

[Pikachu_Dad]

(sarcasm on) Sure we found a LOT of bodies, but where are the "Weapons of Mass Destruction"? Goodness we should not have gotten involved in this country. They didn't have a nuke sitting on the pad waiting to waste Hollywood. Oh my, what an unjust and immoral law. We should put good old Saddam back in power. He was just Soooooo misunderstood. These people all deserved to die. They were revolting against him. Why they were just revolting, ignorant savages. They are not even worth thinking about. Why it is their custom to bury their people this way. These are not mass graves. Why it must have been the Americans that did this. They are the only people who would do something like this. Hey, and those imperialistic, war mongering soliders are nowhere near Baghdad." (sarcasm off)

[MizSterious]

Do a search on the words "mass grave" sometime--you'll see so many articles it will make your head swim. This one contained a "mere" 300 bodies (think: once vibrant, perhaps good lives, walking human beings before ending up in a "mass grave"), but there have been some with literally thousands of now-dead souls. One was said to have held 15,000; another 30,000, and there have been many more mass graves, with thousands more bodies of persons who once lived, had families, friends, hopes and dreams. I wonder if anyone is keeping a tally of all the graves, and all the once-alive people now buried in them?

I think we've found the WMD, and it is Saddam and his henchmen.

[backhoe]

First 100 of 41,000 hits:

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=100&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=mass+grave&as_oq=iraq&as_eq=&lr=lang_en&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

[bandleader]

I wonder how The DemonRats feel about all of these mass graves that are being discovered?Do they still think that "W"had no business taking us to war unless WMDs are discovered??I say that Saddam Hussein is(was)a Weapon of Mass Destruction!!

[rintense]

But... but... where are the WMDs???? /sarcasm

[Cacophonous]

Re: Mass Graves found in Iraq

Don't care, unless they were Americans.

[bandleader]

MEGA SARCASTIC DITTOS!If you listen to The Kool Aid Drinkers(Klintoons)long enough,Ms.Lewinsky wasn't giving BeelzeBubba a "Hummer",she was just trying to quit smoking!!!

[eddie willers]

I wonder how The DemonRats feel about all of these mass graves that are being discovered?

I wandered over to DU (I keep saying I won't go back, but it's like a car wreck that refuses to be cleaned off the side of the road and I just can't seem to help myself) and one idiot's statement was that "it's the cradle of civilization. It been there thouands of years....OF COURSE they'd find bodies!"

(I swear I'm never going back....)

[TheSpottedOwl]

I wonder if anyone is keeping a tally of all the graves, and all the once-alive people now buried in them?

Hey long time no see :) Yeah, I was wondering about that about a month ago when they found yet another mass grave. Seems like they're finding one at least every couple of weeks. What could be more important than to bring justice for the dead and some kind of peace for the survivors? I think we've found the WMD, and it is Saddam and his henchmen.

I believe you're right.

[Cacophonous]

What could be more important than to bring justice for the dead and some kind of peace for the survivors?

From an American foreign policy standpoint, just about anything. Are we to waste American lives and resources on wars of liberation and vengeance? Geez, we'll be in a constant state of warfare. Are you really advocating that?

[TheSpottedOwl]

If you listen to The Kool Aid Drinkers(Klintoons)long enough,Ms.Lewinsky wasn't giving BeelzeBubba a "Hummer",she was just trying to quit smoking!!!

What was she smoking? /snicker

[TheSpottedOwl]

From an American foreign policy standpoint, just about anything. Are we to waste American lives and resources on wars of liberation and vengeance? Geez, we'll be in a constant state of warfare. Are you really advocating that?

I'm not advocating that American troops be in a constant state of warfare. I was making a comment about WMD's. Maybe we haven't found anything significant in that area, but we sure are finding a whole lot of murdered people. Should we discount these people's misery?

[Principled]

But... but... where are the WMDs???? /sarcasm

The region suffered under an anti-Kurd campaign by the regime in 1988 and 1989, which the Kurds refer to as Anfal and that included the infamous chemical attack on the town of Halabja.

They're somewhere.

[Western Phil]

From an American foreign policy standpoint, just about anything. Are we to waste American lives and resources on wars of liberation and vengeance? Geez, we'll be in a constant state of warfare. Are you really advocating that?

Do an internet search on Ramzi Yousef and you will know that Iraq II would have justified in the mid 90s.

[1rudeboy]

Don't care, unless they were Americans.

Keep it up, you are only a small step from not caring if they were Americans, either.

[NordP]

"Don't care, unless they were Americans.">

Key words here = "don't care"

[Wolfstar]

Although C-SPAN is not as useful as it once was, every now and again they hit one out of the park. They sent a camera crew over to Iraq in mid-June with a USAID delegation. In one segment, they filmed a mass grave site containing some 800 to 900 bodies. An Iraqi volunteer group had carefully uncovered the graves, bundled up any remaining belongings, and were working to get the bodies identified. They were trying to use the new Iraqi media to get the word out. They said that by mid-June, some 51 sites had been uncovered with an estimated 80 to 90 still to be searched.

Iraq is just littered with the bodies of thousands of men, women, children and, yes, babies Hussein and his Baathist thugs slaughtered. They turned the place into one giant weapons dump and slaughterhouse. And yet the Left, ensconced so comfortably in the West, still insist we are the villans for liberating those long-suffering people.