IRAQ: The remains of an entire busload of people, including women and children, have been discovered near Hilla, Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Mr Ayad Allawi, claimed yesterday.
The interim government was continuing to uncover many atrocities committed during Saddam Hussein's rule, he said. "We underestimated the scale of what happened in Iraq at that time," he said. "So far we have discovered 262 mass graves, with tens of thousands of people. It's unbelievably shocking - truckloads, busloads of people buried."
There had been a recent discovery of a busload of people buried alive at Hilla, an hour's drive south of Baghdad. "Men, women and children - they were still sitting in their seats," he said.
After the first Gulf war in 1991, thousands of Shias and Kurds rebelled, expecting US help. A mass grave at Hilla was found last year to contain the bodies of 3,000 Shias.