By Xinhua
Tikrit (Iraq) : The US troops found 14 bodies in a mass grave near the city of Samarra, some 120 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a source in the US and Iraqi liaison office said Monday.
“The victims were men with their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the heads,” the source from the Joint Coordination Centre in Tikrit province said.
The mass grave was found near a main road to the south of the city, an area long under control of the Al Qaeda militants, the source said.
The gruesome finding came as unconfirmed reports said that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to visit the city where two of the most revered Shia Imams are buried.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad started a landmark two-day visit to Baghdad, which is the first for an Iranian president since Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979.
Violence persists in some Iraqi areas, including Salahudin, shaping a setback to the security in the war-torn country after a relative lull in violence as a result of a US military surge.