[Excerpt: Their hands were tied behind their back and each was shot in the head, police said. All of the men were Shiite Muslims from Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Kadhimiya who had been hired by an Iraqi contractor to work at a U.S. base in Mosul....The bodies were discovered Wednesday, the same day a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-laden car outside a police academy south of Baghdad in Hillah during a graduation ceremony, killing 20 people.] _http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=MABOC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE= DEFAULT_ (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=MABOC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) Jan 6, 8:27 AM EST 18 Iraqis Found Dead in Field Near Mosul By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shiites taken off a bus and executed last month while seeking work at a U.S. base have been found in a field near the volatile city of Mosul, police said Thursday. Police said the insurgents shot the men, who ranged in age from 14 to 20, on Dec. 8 after stopping their two mini-buses about 30 miles west of Mosul. Their hands were tied behind their back and each was shot in the head, police said. All of the men were Shiite Muslims from Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Kadhimiya who had been hired by an Iraqi contractor to work at a U.S. base in Mosul. The bodies were discovered Wednesday, the same day a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-laden car outside a police academy south of Baghdad in Hillah during a graduation ceremony, killing 20 people. A second car bomber killed five Iraqi policemen in Baqouba - bringing the death toll to at least 90 so far this week in surging violence aimed at derailing this month's elections. In a separate execution-style incident, the bodies of three Jordanian truck drivers shot in the head were discovered on the outskirts of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, an AP photographer at the scene said Thursday. "This is the fate of anyone who cooperates with the Americans," said a note placed on one of the bodies. A Marine belonging to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action Thursday while conducting operations in the Al Anbar province in western Iraq, the military said in a statement that did not give further details. Despite the mounting attacks and death toll, Iraq's interim leader again insisted the ballot would go ahead as planned. "We will not allow the terrorists to stop the political process in Iraq," Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said "The elections process is the basis for the deepening of the national unity in Iraq." While Allawi and U.S. military commanders insisted parliamentary elections must be held as scheduled on Jan. 30, interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, who holds only ceremonial powers, left open the possibility that the vote could be postponed. "I think that we should continue working on how to hold the elections on schedule, but we should not lack the courage if we see that this is impossible," said al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim tribal leader. If the election takes place, it is expected to shift power to the Shiite Muslim community, an estimated 60 percent of the population that has been dominated by the Sunni Arab minority since modern Iraq was created after World War I. The insurgency is believed to be led by Sunnis and Saddam Hussein's supporters. U.S. officials believe the violence is aimed at blocking the elections and driving out the U.S.-led military coalition. They say postponing the vote would be tantamount to conceding victory to the militants. The car bomb outside the police academy in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, was the latest in a series of attacks on Iraqi security forces. More than 1,300 policemen were killed in the final four months of 2004, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. Police Capt. Hady Hatef in Hillah said the blast occurred during a graduation ceremony at the academy and killed at least 20 people, including civilians. Polish Lt. Col. Artur Domanski, a spokesman for the multinational force in Hillah, said at least 10 policemen were among the dead and 41 people were wounded. In Baqouba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, a suicide attacker rammed his car into a joint police and Iraqi National Guard checkpoint, killing five policemen and wounding eight other Iraqis, a U.S. spokesman, Maj. Neal O'Brien, said. In a separate attack, gunmen killed police Col. Khalifa Hassan and his driver as they headed to work in Baqouba, said Dr. Ahmed Fouad at Baqouba General Hospital. Between 20,000 and 30,000 insurgents are operating throughout Iraq and are directed by former officials of Saddam's regime based in Syria, Iraq's intelligence chief said in an interview published Wednesday by a London-based Arab newspaper. "We officially call them terrorists," Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdullah al-Shahwani told Asharq Al-Awsat. "They are between 20,000 and 30,000 armed men operating all over Iraq, mainly in the Sunni areas where they receive moral support from about 200,000 people." Al-Shahwani predicted attacks would fade out within a year. © 2005 The Associated Press. enditem [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. 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