IRAQ: The bodies of 20 people, bound and shot in the head, have been found on a military firing range in the eastern suburbs of Baghdad.
Police say the identities of the victims are unclear and the bodies appear to have been there for some time. They were found on Friday and were now in a Baghdad morgue, a police officer said.
Such finds have become a grim routine of the violence in Iraq. In the couple of months since a Shia- led government was formed, more than 900 people have been killed, fuelling fears that the nation could be pitched into civil war.
Insurgents among Saddam Hussein's once-dominant Sunni minority have stepped up attacks on US and Iraqi security forces and civilians while Sunni leaders have accused Shia militias and government forces of attacking ordinary Sunnis - a charge the various groups and ministries deny.
A leading Sunni organisation, the Muslim Clerics Association, issued a statement yesterday saying 30 bodies had been found at the firing range. It said one body was identified as belonging to a Sunni Arab. It gave no details.
Elsewhere, residents said one of three people found bound and shot dead in a car northwest of Baghdad had worked as a guard for a Sunni organisation whose head is the spokesman for the Gathering of the Sunni People, the umbrella group that is negotiating with parliament on the drafting of a constitution.
In the west of the country, US forces said they killed about 40 insurgents in air strikes on Saturday near Qaim on the Syrian border, a stronghold of guerrillas.
At the scene yesterday, it was hard to determine the number and identity of casualties. Local people said no fighters were there but prevented journalists from visiting some areas. Also in the west, three civilian drivers were killed on the main desert highway between Baghdad and Jordan when insurgents and US troops exchanged fire, a local mayor said.
Four US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in two similar incidents south of Falluja, a stronghold of the western insurgency which was captured by US troops last November. Seven civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded close to an Iraqi army patrol near the town and a police captain was shot dead as he left his home.
Three mortar rounds landed close to a house in Baghdad where the funeral was taking place of the mother of one of Iraq's top generals, Major Gen Rashid Fleya, police said. One mourner was killed and two wounded. As police were trying to find the assailants, a bomb went off wounding 10 people, five of them policemen.
The government said some rebels had approached it looking for peace terms and it repeated its willingness to speak to groups which had not killed fellow Iraqis and had renounced violence.
Government spokesman Laith Kubba, at a news conference, gave no details of who had made contact. While some guerrillas concentrate their attacks on US occupying forces, others have killed thousands of Iraqis.
"Many have been trying to open channels to talk in recent weeks," Mr Kubba said.
"Some were calling directly, saying 'We did not kill any Iraqis but took up arms to resist the occupation and want to participate in the political process'. To those who have not carried out any killings of Iraqis and who are willing to give up violence and intend to take part in the political process, the door is open."