41 bodies found in Iraq - Women and children among victims

Iraqi police said today that 41 corpses, some of them headless, had been found in the west of the country and to the south of Baghdad. The news came as three people died in a suicide bombing in the capital and gunmen attacked the convoy of Iraq's planning minister, Mehdi al-Hafidh.  Twenty-six of the corpses were found in a field near Rumana, a village near the western city of Qaim, late yesterday, police Captain Muzahim al-Karbouli said. All the bodies were riddled with bullets. It is thought the victims were killed several days ago. Capt Karbouli said they were dressed in civilian clothes, and that one was a woman.  Another 15 headless bodies were found by Iraqi troops in Latifiya, a volatile area to the south of Baghdad which US-led troops have struggled to control, yesterday. The bodies were inside an abandoned former army base, Captain Sabah Yassin, of the Iraqi defence ministry, said. [more]