Iraq turmoil: 50 bodies found near Hillah

World Today

Iraqi officials discovered 50 bodies, many of them blindfolded and with their hands bound, in an agricultural area outside a city south of Baghdad on Wednesday, raising concerns over a possible sectarian killing amid the battle against a Sunni insurgency.

The lightning sweep by the militants over much of northern and western Iraq the past month has dramatically hiked tensions between the country’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority. At the same time, splits have grown between the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomous region in the north.

The bodies, all of them with gunshot wounds, were found in the predominantly Shiite village of Khamissiya outside the city of Hillah, located some 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, said military spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim. CCTV’s Annabell van den Berghe reports with details from Baghdad.

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Iraq turmoil: 50 bodies found near Hillah

A grim discovery signalled spiraling sectarian tensions in Iraq. Iraqi officials have found 50 bodies near the town of Hillah, south of Baghdad. Annabell van den Berghe reports with details.