Bodies of 70 Slain Iraqi Hostages Found

Iraq’s newly elected President, Jalal Talabani, held a news conference Wednesday to discuss Iraq's fledgling government. Newly elected politicians have been debating the details of the new government, and Talabani said that he hopes the plans for a new Iraqi government will be announced Thursday. He was asked about the search for hostages from the Madain region southeast of Baghdad, because of claims from Shiite officials last week that Sunni militants had kidnapped dozens of Shiite residents from the area. Shiite leaders and government officials had claimed that Sunni militants had taken as many as 100 Shiite residents hostage. Talbani said that upon hearing the reports, Iraqi forces went to investigate but found no captives in Madain. However, he disclosed the shocking news that dozens of bodies had been found in two other locations in Iraq.

Most of the bodies were discovered in the Tigris River. "More than 50 bodies have been brought out from the Tigris, and we have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani said. The Interior Ministry confirmed the incident, saying that the bodies in the river are believed to be people who were taken hostage in the Siwerra-Wasit province in southern Iraq. Women and children were among the dead. Talabani said outgoing prime minister Ayad Allawi will lead the investigation into the bodies pulled from the river.

Talabani also said that the corpses of 20 Iraqi soldiers had been discovered shot to death west of Baghdad. The soldiers had been abducted during a deadly attack in Haditha, a town about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. Residents who found the bodies reported that they were lined against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium, and all appeared to have been shot. According to a defense ministry official, the soldiers were wearing civilian clothes because they were abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday.

U.S. military officials have offered no information or comment on the incident, and Marine Corps officials issued a statement saying they cannot confirm the reports of the killings. However, the statement mentioned reports from Haditha that "insurgents ransacked a television and radio station that provided emergency information, news, and entertainment to the local population." Meanwhile, a series of bombings rocked the Baghdad region Wednesday, killing an Iraqi child and an adult, and wounding at least eight other people, police said. The capital has been besieged by insurgent bombings in recent days.