Mass grave

last updated 8 January 2015

Salman Pak, Iraq

Bodies in a mass grave found at a government compound appear to be those of Iraqi political prisoners and army deserters executed shortly before or during the U.S. invasion. Witnesses from a village near the site said they found 115 bodies, many in army uniforms or prison garb, and all with bound hands and gunshot wounds to the head. Most mass graves found in Iraq so far have been filled with the corpses of Shiites killed during the 1991 uprising after the first Gulf War. “This is the first grave we’ve found of such recent vintage,” said U.S. Col. Ed Burley.