Marines have found the bodies of four US servicemen in a shallow grave near
the town of Nasiriyah.
US military officials said they believed Iraqi paramilitary forces executed
the four after they were seized in an ambush last Sunday.
The military officials declined to speculate on whether the bodies were
those of captured US soldiers shown alive by al-Jazeera television last
weekend. The military had heard reports that the soldiers were executed
after appearing on the Qatar-based network, but there had been no
confirmation.
On Friday, marines found the four bodies in a freshly dug grave near a
house in the north-east corner of Nasiriyah. An army official said the
bodies were wearing US uniforms but confusion remained about which branch
of the military they belonged to.
On Saturday a US forensic team and military investigators were flown to the
site. Officers said the deaths were tentatively being treated as a war
crime. The soldiers were among 10 Americans listed as missing in action
since fighting began.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/30/1048962646023.html