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| Iraq |
| Iraq officials find mass graves near Syrian border |
| 2008-10-22 |
| BAGHDAD – Iraqi officials Wednesday reported finding mass graves with remains of 34 people, most believed to have been Iraqi army recruits waylaid three years ago by al-Qaida gunmen as they traveled to a training base near the Syrian border. Farmers tipped off authorities last week about the graves, located in the Euphrates River valley near Syria about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, according to a local mayor, Farhan Fitaghan. Fitaghan told The Associated Press that two of the remains were women. Most of the victims were believed to have been army recruits from the southern Shiite city of Karbala who were traveling by bus in September 2005 to a training camp in an abandoned phosphate plant in Qaim when they were stopped by gunmen and taken away, the mayor said. The Qaim area had been among the most dangerous parts of the country for U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies. Al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni militant groups smuggled weapons and fighters from Syria, crossing the border near Qaim and heading for Baghdad and other major cities to the south. Since then, authorities have been turning up more and more mass graves in former insurgent strongholds — testimony to the brutality of the nearly six-year war. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #2 I remember that incident. There were comments at the time that had the recruits been armed, they might have been able to defend themselves against whichever group had murdered them. That the graves are now being found bespeaks the increased control unified Iraq, supported by the Coalition, has over their own country. May these finds bring peace to those who loved them. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-10-22 21:25 |
| #1 God bless them and curse the weakass Baathists in Syria who encouraged this. Hopefully Imad Mugniyeh was a beginning, not an end |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-10-22 20:35 |