Author:
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: August 27, 2004
URL: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040827/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_sadr_police_execute_040827124706&e=1
At least 25 charred and bloated
bodies were discovered in the basement of a religious court set up by rebel
cleric Moqtada Sadr in Najaf's Old City, police said.
The bodies were brought up to ground
level by police and Iraqi national guardsmen and could be seen lying in
the courtyard, an AFP correspondent said.
"We entered the building which was
being used as Moqtada Sadr's court and we discovered in the basement a
large number of bodies of police and ordinary civilians," said the deputy
head of the Najaf police, General Amer Hamza al-Daami.
"Some were executed, others were
mutilated and others were burned."
A pungent odour of death hung over
the courtyard where the bodies lay, their clothes soiled and muddy, the
AFP correspondent said.
An array of beer cans littered the
ground and a national guardsman said: "Look with your own eyes -- they
drank beer and then they killed."
The consumption of alcoholic drinks
is strictly forbidden under Islam.
One witness, Rahri Hussein, said
he was close to the mausoleum when "a young man asked everyone to come
to the court building because he said he was tortured there and he was
convinced that there were prisoners still being held in there.
"When we got down there we found
only two people alive, the uncle of the police chief and a boy. The rest
were just dead bodies."
Adel al-Jazairi, the uncle and driver
of Najaf police chief Ghaleb al- Jazairi, was kidnapped by militiamen on
August 8.