2ND 28 corpses found across Iraq; gas blast kills 27

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Tuesday August 29, 2006

Baghdad- Iraq's sectarian violence toll rose further Tuesday with the discovery of 28 unidentified corpses around the country, as meanwhile at least 27 persons were killed in a gas pipeline blast south of Baghdad. In Hillah, some 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, the police department's media spokesman told Deutsche Press-Agentur dpa that 12 unidentified bodies were discovered by police in the region's towns.

He said the 12 bodies bore evidence of torture along with fatal bullet wounds. Some of the bodies had their hands bound and some were blindfolded.

Elsewhere in Iraq, police forces from Baquba said that they had discovered six unidentified corpses around the city, located approximately 60 kilometres east of Baghdad.

The sources added that all six corpses had their hands bound, and bore evidence of torture and bullet wounds.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, police said that they had found 10 unidentified corpses near the al-Alam School's courtyard in the Turath area of Baghdad's Shiite district of Bayaa'.

Security sources said that the identities of all 10 bodies were not yet known, and that they bore evidence of having been tortured.

The sources added that the victims had their hands bound and were blindfolded.

Elsewhere in the country eight Iraqis were killed and two were wounded in a series of attacks Tuesday in Baquba, 60 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, police sources and witnesses said.

Police sources told dpa that missiles struck the office of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in central Baquba, killing two persons and wounding two.

Three further Iraqis, including two brothers, were shot dead in southern Baquba.

In another incident a man and his son were shot dead in the city's Tahir district while another one was killed in the industrial district of Baquba.

The US military said two more soldiers had been killed - one from injuries in an August 21 accident of his Humvee vehicle, the other of wounds during operations in Al Anbar province.

Meanwhile, at least 27 Iraqis were killed and dozens were injured when a gas pipeline exploded near the city of Diwaniya in the Qadesiya Governorate, the province's governor said Tuesday.

Qadesiya Governor Jaleel Khalil said in the provincial capital of Diwaniya that "highwaymen and robbers" tampering with a gas pipeline near the city on Monday caused the pipeline to explode and burst into flames. Diwaniya is some 180 kilometres south of Baghdad.

The governor said that "yesterday a group of highwaymen and robbers broke a segment of the gas pipeline in order to steal fuel and sell it illegally."

He added that "we don't know how the pipeline exploded, but the explosion resulted in a major fire along the pipeline."

The governorate council is said to have established a committee to investigate the exact cause of the explosion and fire.

The governor went on to say that the toll resulting from the incident stood at 27 dead, but that it was feared that the death toll would rise further from among the many persons injured.

Contradicting statistics were issued by the Iraqi news agency al- Dar which mentioned that 75 were killed and another 120 injured - most of whom were said to be youths.

The Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera reported on Tuesday evening that up to 80 Iraqis may have died in the incident. There was no official confirmation of this.

Witnesses spoke of ambulances rushing a large number of dead and injured to hospitals in Diwaniya and Hamza. They said many of the corpses were burnt beyond recognition.

Security sources told dpa that the explosion took place near the village of Sadeer.

The sources said the regime of edeposed president Saddam Hussain had used the gas pipelines as strategic gasoline reserves when the transport of gas through the pipelines from Basra in the south to all the country's governorates came to a halt during the 1991 Gulf War.

A segment of the same pipeline exploded three months ago, killing five Iraqis and injuring 10.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur