Reuters, 04 May 2006
BAGHDAD - An average of 35 to 50 bodies, most of them with gunshot wounds, are brought to Baghdad's main morgue every day, likely victims of sectarian killings, its deputy director said on Thursday.
Sectarian violence has exploded in Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine which unleashed a wave of reprisal killings that pushed Iraq close to civil war.
The dumping of bodies, many of them bound and showing signs of torture, has long been a feature of Iraq's violence.
The morgue received 1,068 bodies in January, 1,110 in February, 1,294 in March and 1,115 in April, Doctor Qaiss Hassan said, adding 90 percent of them were shot dead.
Before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, Hassan said the morgue received an average of seven to 10 bodies a day.
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Citation: "Baghdad morgue receives 35-50 bodies daily," Reuters, 04 May 2006.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO437289.htm
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