Guardian Utd (April 25): Mystery of Iraq's alleged oasis of death

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited
Dated Monday April 25

Mystery of Iraq's alleged oasis of death
Deserted insurgent base yields few clues to the discovery of 57 corpses found downriver
By Rory Carroll in Salman Pak

For decades farmers in Salman Pak, a lush townland by the Tigris river, used canopies of date palms to shelter orange groves from a broiling sun. When insurgents took over the area earlier this year they used the foliage to hide stolen cars, weapons caches and supply routes from American drones buzzing overhead.

The insurgents' presence was no secret. They razed the police station, set up checkpoints and turned the surrounding district of Madaen into a stronghold.

But last week it emerged that the palms may have concealed more than just equipment. Police in Suwayrah, a town 15 miles downriver, reported recovering at least 57 bodies from the Tigris, fuelling claims that Madaen had been turned into an oasis of murder.

Some of the corpses were bound and without heads or limbs, some were bloated and badly decomposed. Most were men but there were several women and children.

Read more.

[Lithos]

1. Bodies 3 weeks old?

How in that heat? Bodies do not last long in the type of heat in Iraq.

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