BAQUBA, 13 July 2006 — Blindfolded, hands tied behind them, and most shot in the head, 22 bodies of kidnapped Shiites were found yesterday as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Iraq to review worsening security in Baghdad.
In another gruesome example of the sectarian bloodshed that has engulfed Iraq, the 22 Shiites were part of a group of up to 80 who were kidnapped earlier yesterday in the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad.
The fate of the other missing Shiites was not immediately known. The army said the 22 had been executed, their bodies found lying in orchards during army raids in the village of Zeham, close to Muqdadiyah.
Senior Shiite MP Jalaleddin Al-Saghir had first announced the abductions of the Shiites at a Parliament session in Baghdad earlier in the day.
“There was a very serious breach of security in Diyala province today when 60-80 Shiites were kidnapped from the bus station in Muqdadiyah,” he said.
Muqdadiyah, a Sunni-majority town in the confessionally mixed province of Diyala — whose provincial capital is Baquba — has seen repeated raids by government and US troops over the past week in which at least 70 suspected insurgents have been rounded up.
The latest bloodbath followed the killings of over 100 people in the past four days across the country, mostly in Baghdad, where a massive security crackdown has failed to curb the violence.
Violence in Baghdad has raged despite the fact that more than 50,000 troops, mostly Iraqi, have been patrolling the capital’s streets since last month. Elsewhere 12 people were killed across Iraq, including nine in two Baghdad bombings, one of which was a suicide bombing in a restaurant.
The burst in sectarian attacks over the past few days prompted Rumsfeld to make an unannounced visit to Iraq to discuss security with Premier Nuri Al-Maliki.
Rumsfeld intended to discuss how to rein in the Shiite militias blamed for many of the sectarian attacks on the Sunni Arabs — who appear to be retaliating.
He told journalists traveling with him that the militias needed to be handled politically, but did not rule out a military response for rebel groups that refused to be part of a peace process announced by Maliki.
Maliki also lashed out at lawmakers in Parliament accusing them of strengthening the militias rather than dismantling them. “Everyone has militias and is building them further. Where are your efforts to contribute to security? We have seen nothing but tense sectarian rhetoric and actions that weaken the government,” he said in the assembly.
Rumsfeld’s visit also comes at a time when the US military is battling accusations of abuse by its troops, including the rape and murder of a teenage girl and killing of three family members.
Maliki has called for a review of the immunity enjoyed by US-led coalition troops from Iraqi laws. But Rumsfeld rejected such a move and insisted the allegations would be dealt through the US military judicial system.
“We have arrangements so that our people are processed by our people. And that’s under the Coalition Provisional Authority that has been blessed by the Iraqi government. That’s the way things will be handled,” Rumsfeld said.
A former soldier and five others stationed in Iraq have been charged in the rape and murder of the girl and the murder of three family members in the town of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.
yesterday some 150 women, calling for scrapping of the immunity, protested at Baghdad’s Yarmuk club and demanded that the former soldier Steven Green be tried as a “war criminal.” Rumsfeld said he would also discuss a comprehensive review of Iraq’s national security, the size and mix of the Iraqi forces, efforts to develop effective government ministries, as well as a system of justice. US military commanders could consider putting more American troops — from the present 8,000 — on the street in response to the upsurge of sectarian violence, said Rumsfeld.
Maliki however vowed that the security forces were capable of fending off any attempt by insurgents to take control, especially of west Baghdad.
“We heard they intend to occupy Karkh, but our security forces are well equipped to face them off,” Maliki told Parliament, referring to a main district on the west bank of the Tigris River.
