BAGHDAD: The bodies of 18 people kidnapped hours earlier by men in army uniforms were found abandoned north of Baghdad on Friday, the latest troubling sign of worsening violence in Iraq.

The killings come amid a surge in violence that has included multiple attacks with victims snatched from their homes, only for their corpses to be found later in scenes eerily recalling the worst of Iraq’s gruesome 2006-07 sectarian war.

More than 6,000 people have been killed this year, forcing Baghdad to appeal for international help in battling militancy just months before a general election, as official concern focuses on a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the civil war raging in neighboring Syria.

Early Friday, authorities discovered the bodies of 18 men, including two tribal chiefs, four policemen and an army major, dumped in farmland near the Sunni Arab town of Tarmiyah, just north of Baghdad.

All of the men had been shot in the head and chest, two police officers and a medical source said.

The kidnappers, wearing military uniform and traveling in what appeared to be army vehicles, had abducted the men in the early hours of Friday.

They told the victims’ families that they were suspects in a variety of investigations who had to be taken away for questioning.

Their bodies were found hours later, the sources said.

The brutal killings come just days after authorities discovered the bodies of 19 people who had been shot dead in various parts of Baghdad, including eight who were found blindfolded and six whose corpses were left in a canal.