Headless bodies make comeback

 

Azzaman, April 21, 2008

 

Medical and security sources say 21 unidentified corpses were collected in the past two days in the restive city of Baaquouba.

 

Meantime, 16 headless bodies were found during the same period in the southern city of Diwaniya.

 

Lg. Gen. Kareem al-Rubaie said the bodies were decomposed with the heads chopped off, eyes blinded and hands cuffed.

 

Medical sources said the decomposed bodies were found in black plastic bags.

 

Most were killed almost a weak ago, according to Doctor Ahmad Fuad.

 

Reports of decapitated bodies and corpses decomposing on roadsides are no longer of interest to international media as they have become a way of life for the country.

 

Media interest is now focused on the raging battles between U.S. and government troops on the one hand and the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

 

The U.S. is even employing helicopter gun ships and heavy weaponry in the fight to flush Sadr City in Baghdad of Mahdi Army fighters.

 

There are reporters of massive damage casualties mostly innocent civilians.

 

Mahdi Army draws its popular support from the poorest slums of Baghdad and southern Iraq which are densely populated.

 

The Sadr City of Baghdad, where millions of impoverished Shiites live, is believed to be one of the most densely populated areas in the world where some of the most ferocious fighting is taking place.

 

The city is a Mahdi Army stronghold and analysts say it is almost impossible for any force to end Sadr’s influence there as the area has been a traditional bastion of the Sadr family.