Bodies found in al-Sadr's former religious court

By Abdul Hussein al-Obeidi
The Associated Press

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

NAJAF, Iraq — In an open-air room at an abandoned religious court run by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's followers, 10 bloated, darkened bodies lay covered in bloodied blankets.

Police, who discovered the room yesterday, said the bodies belonged to the victims of the court. But a court official, who identified himself only as Hashim, said the corpses belonged to militants killed during three weeks of fierce fighting between al-Sadr's militiamen and U.S.-Iraqi forces.

During the fighting, which began Aug. 5, the militants set up their own informal health clinics and morgues. The U.S. military has said it killed hundreds of militants in the fighting, though the militants say their casualty figure was far lower.

"They were martyrs from the Mahdi Army, who were bombed by planes and tanks," Abdul Hadi al-Daraji, an al-Sadr aide in Baghdad, told Al Jazeera television.

An Associated Press reporter saw 10 bodies, including one of an elderly woman. It was not immediately clear how they died, but several had large, gaping wounds that appeared to have been caused by shrapnel.

Some were blackened. Half the skull of one of the dead men was missing and another man appeared to have suffered massive wounds to his stomach. None of the bodies was dismembered, except one, which had been beheaded.

Pools of dried blood were visible on the floor near the bodies. On the walls were framed photos of al-Sadr and his father, a senior cleric who was killed by suspected agents of Saddam Hussein in 1999.

Al-Sadr's office in Najaf had set up the court, which ordered arrests and meted out punishments outside of religious and legal authorities. Local Iraqi officials have in the past demanded it be shut down and all its prisoners freed.

The courts have arrested and interrogated hundreds of people on charges including selling alcohol and peddling music deemed immoral. Punishments included flagellation.

Al-Sadr's followers have been accused of using the court to settle scores with opponents or to threaten people.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More nation & world headlines...