Sep 13, 2006 9:48 am US/Mountain
Police Discover 65 Bodies Across Iraq
Most Found In Both Sunni, Shiite Neighborhoods Of Baghdad
BAGHDAD (CBS News) ―
Police found the bodies of 65 men who had been tortured, shot and dumped, most around Baghdad, while car bombs, mortar attacks and shootings killed at least 30 people around Iraq and injured dozens more.
They were found abandoned in various locations within the capital, all bearing the hallmarks of having been victims of sectarian death squads, reports CBS News' Pete Gow (audio). They were bound hand and foot, and shot execution-style through the head, and many showed signs of having been tortured.
Police said 60 of the bodies were found overnight around Baghdad, with the majority dumped in predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods, police said. Another five were found floating down the Tigris river in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of the capital.
Forty-five of the victims were discovered in predominantly Sunni Arab parts of western Baghdad, and 15 were found in mostly Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad.
In other developments: Two U.S. soldiers were killed, one by an attack in restive Anbar province Monday, and the other Tuesday by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the U.S. military command said.
The chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial demanded the presiding judge step down, accusing him Wednesday of bias toward the deposed leader and his co-defendants. "You allowed this court to become a political podium for the defendants," roared prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon, as judge Abdullah al-Amiri listened.
An Iraqi militant group threatened in a brief videotape posted on a Web site Wednesday to kill a Turkish hostage if his government does not close down the company that employs him. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Baghdad has been the focus of most of Iraq's violence, and thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces are taking part in a security crackdown. An average of 51 people a day died violently last month in the capital, according to the Iraqi Health Ministry.
The gruesome discoveries are clear signs that the recent military crackdown on such violence is far from a complete success, says Gow.
Asked Wednesday morning if it seems the new security crackdown in Baghdad is not working, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said U.S. commanders had reported "initial good results."
In the capital, a car bomb killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 62 after it detonated in a large square used mostly as a parking lot near the main headquarters of Baghdad's traffic police department, police said. At least two of the dead were traffic police officers.
In eastern Baghdad, a bomb in a parked car exploded next to a passing Iraqi police patrol in the Zayona neighborhood, killing 8 people and wounding 17, police said. At least 3 of the dead and 7 of the wounded were police officers.
Two mortar shells landed on al-Rashad police station in southeastern Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding two others, police said. Another two policemen were killed when two mortar rounds landed near their station in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Mashtal. Three others were injured.
In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, two pedestrians were killed and two others injured, apparently in the crossfire between U.S. troops and unidentified gunmen in the city's main market, police said.
Wednesday's outburst by Saddam's chief prosecutor was only the latest in court.
On Tuesday, Saddam bellowed against "agents of Iran and Zionism" and vowed to "crush your heads" after listening to Kurdish witnesses allege atrocities committed against them during the government's Operation Anfal crackdown on Kurds in the late 1980s.
Al-Faroon alleged that al-Amiri was giving Saddam the time to make "political" statements that were irrelevant to the proceedings.
"For instance yesterday, instead of taking legal action (against Saddam), you asked his permission to talk," al-Faroon said.
"The action of the court leans toward the defendants," the prosecutor alleged. He said Saddam treated the witnesses with disrespect.
A Kurdish civil attorney also told the court that Saddam "hurt our feelings" in the statements he made this week.
"His statements are illegal and must be stopped," said the woman, who the court did not immediately identify by name.
Al-Amiri responded by recalling how a Muslim successor to the 7th century Prophet Muhammad allowed the accused to voice their opinions.
One of the "pillars of the judiciary is to treat everyone equally," al-Amiri said before he ordered proceedings resumed.
The court heard more testimony Wednesday from Anfal survivors, including a former Kurdish guerrilla, Omar Othman, who said he received medical treatment in Iran and Germany after suffering chemical burns during an attack in March 1988.
Another witness, Hama Ahmed, told of attacks by Iraqi Sukhoi jets that dropped chemical weapons on his village in February 1988.
"Iraqi forces ransacked our village and took our animals," he said. "They took everything."
If convicted, Saddam and his co-defendants could face death by hanging.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
