By Xinhua,
Baghdad : Iraqi security forces have discovered a mass grave with 33 decomposed bodies in a village in the volatile northern province of Diyala, the interior ministry said Sunday.
Based on information from residents, the forces discovered the grave Saturday in Albu-Tu’ ma village near the town of Khalis, 75 km northeast of Baghdad, a ministry official said.
Amid the bullet-riddled bodies were also those of children and women in the more than a year old grave, he said.
It is suspected that the victims were kidnapped and killed by the Al Qaeda militants who were controlling the area at that time.
Diyala province, which stretches from eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border, has been the stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups since the US-led invasion in 2003.
US and Iraqi security forces have found in different parts of Iraq scores of mass graves of people killed in chaos and sectarian strife.