Distraught relatives search Iraqi mass grave
Frantic relatives continue to search the site of a mass grave discovered in Iraq.
The vast grave is located just outside the small village of al-Mahawil, about 56 miles (90 kilometres) south of Baghdad and could hold as many as 15,000 bodies of Iraqis killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Most of the bodies are believed to be those of Shiite Muslims killed during an uprising in 1991 sparked by the Gulf War.
The dig continues as villagers hunt desperately among the skeletons for identity cards and items that mark bodies as their loved ones.
However, concerns have been raised that the chaotic hunt may be destroying crucial evidence against the former government.
The mass grave is believed to be the biggest found since the former regime fell last month and the remains of around 3,000 people have been discovered so far.
The US administration has received further criticism for failing to protect the grave from distraught relatives poring over the corpses so that forensic experts can be brought in to formally identify the remains. There were no US soldiers positioned at the site.
Crowds at the site have been using everything from tractors to their bare hands to dig.
According to reports, around half of the bodies recovered have been identified through documents or possessions found with them.
Local villagers said they had heard or witnessed the killings by Saddam Hussein’s troops but had not dared talk about them before. Many watched as the desperate hunt continued throughout the day.
Several mass graves have been uncovered in Basra, Najaf, Babylon and elsewhere since the fall of Baghdad as local people find they are free to talk about the previous regime’s atrocities.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis disappeared during Saddam Hussein’s reign.
