- Title: IRAQ: IRAQIS CLOSE TO THE CITY OF NAJAF HAVE DUG CORPSES FROM A MASS GRAVE
- Date: 4th May 2003
- Summary: (W6) 20 KILOMETRES NORTH OF NAJAF, IRAQ (MAY 4, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV/SV PEOPLE DIGGING GRAVES (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. CU SKULL 0.16 3. SLV HUMAN REMAINS BEING WRAPPED IN WHITE SHEET 0.21 4. SLV REMAINS IN SHEETS MADE UP AS BAGS CARRIED FROM GRAVEYARDS TO BACK OF TRUCK (2 SHOTS) 0.49 5. SLV PEOPLE KNEELED, GATHERED AROUND GRAVES 0.53 6. SLV MAN LOOKING AT REMAINS LYING OVER SHEET ON GROUND 1.01 7. SV/LV/SLV GROUPS OF PEOPLE AROUND GRAVES/PEOPLE DIGGING (3 SHOTS) 1.28 8. SLV CORPSES COVERED IN SHEETS LINED UP ON GROUND 1.34 9. SV/CU OF CORPSES COVERED IN SHEETS, PERSONAL BELONGINGS WRAPPED IN PLASTIC (3 SHOTS) 1.51 10. SLV GRAVE BEING DIGGED 1.54 11. CU BONES AND WALLET FOUND, MAN OPENING WALLET 2.17 12. SLV MAN SEARCHING REMAINS 2.21 13. CU PAPER FOUND WITH MESSAGE WRITTEN IN ARABIC 2.27 14. CU OF MAN DIGGING 2.31 15. CU COIN FOUND 2.36 16. CU SANDALS, SHOES NEAR GRAVE 2.41 17. CU PERSONAL DOCUMENT WITH PHOTOGRAPHY STILL INTACT 2.52 18. CU/SV COINS, BONES, SKULL FOUND AT GRAVE (4 SHOTS) 3.16 19. SLV/CU TWO MEN DIGGING (2 SHOTS) 3.28 20. SV REMAINS WRAPPED IN SHEET CARRIED FROM GRAVE 3.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 19th May 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: 20 KILOMETRES NORTH OF NAJAF, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVAB72D6M74C6E2QLINBB6EOGF2H
- Story Text: Iraqis close to the city of Najaf have dug corpses from
a mass grave.
At a farmland site near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of
Najaf on Sunday (May 4), Iraqis clawed through earth to
uncover scores of bodies, some with blindfolds and hands tied,
of men and women apparently executed during a 1991 Shi'ite
uprising.
Bullet casings, combs, coins and watches lay among them.
Some had identity cards in their rotting clothes. Yellow twine
coated with a coppery crust, possibly blood, bound their
wrists.
Officials helping in the excavation said 47 corpses had
been dug up.
On Saturday (May 3), Iraqis uncovered another mass grave
near the ancient city of Babylon, digging up dozens of bones
wrapped in stained blankets and skulls with rectangles cut out
of the back.
Tens of thousands of Shi'ites and Kurds are thought to
have been killed when Saddam's forces crushed revolts after
U.S.-led forces drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in the 1991
Gulf War.
In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
the decisive American defeat of Saddam's government was "a
demonstration to the world that an awful lot of countries
don't think it's a good idea for countries to have weapons of
mass destruction, or to be on the terrorist list, or to have
relationships with terrorist networks".
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