BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials discovered 50 bodies, many of them blindfolded and with their hands bound, in an agricultural area outside a city south of Baghdad on Wednesday, raising concerns over a possible sectarian killing amid the battle against an insurgency.

The lightning sweep by the insurgents over much of northern and western Iraq the past month has dramatically hiked tensions between the country’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority. At the same time, splits have grown between the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomy region in the north.

In an address on Wednesday, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki accused the Kurdish zone of being a haven for the extremists and other insurgents. He did not provide any evidence, and the claims are likely to only further strain Baghdad’s ties which the Kurds, whose fighters have been battling the militant advance in the north.

The bodies, all of them with gunshot wounds, were found in the predominantly Shiite village of Khamissiya outside the city of Hillah, located some 95 km from Baghdad, said military spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim. He said an investigation was under way to determine the identities of the dead as well as the circumstances of the killings.

The dead were all men between the ages of 25 and 40, and it appeared they had been killed a few days earlier and then dumped in the remote area, said a local police officer and a medical official.

The area south of Hillah is predominantly Shiite, but there is a belt of Sunni-majority towns north of the city.

Al-Maliki lashed out at the Kurds in his weekly televised statement Wednesday, saying “everything that has been changed on the ground must be returned” — a clear reference to the disputed territory that fighters loyal to the Kurdish regional government, which is based in the city of Irbil, have taken.

He even went a step farther, saying: “We can’t stay silent over Irbil being a headquarters for Daesh, Baath, Al-Qaeda and the terrorists.” Daesh is the acronym in Arabic for the Islamic State group, often used as a pejorative by its opponents, while the Baath was the party of former dictator Saddam Hussein.