Evidence of mass assassinations and more goverment assassinations in Iraq, from USA Today:
BAGHDAD “” More than 30 bodies were discovered in three locations across Iraq this weekend amid a wave of violence Sunday that targeted government officials and religious leaders.
Two clerics “” one Sunni, one Shiite “” were gunned down in separate incidents around Baghdad before 9 a.m., raising concerns that sectarian-motivated killings may become a growing part of Iraq’s daily mix of violence.
Later in the day, police discovered the bodies of 13 men in a shallow grave near Sadr City, a Baghdad slum, Iraqi army Brig. Hussein Muhssen al-Fariji said.
The men had been blindfolded, their hands bound and were shot several times each in the head, he said. Some of the victims had broken legs and arms, as well as gunshot wounds to the legs, signs that they had been tortured, al-Fariji said.
The situation bore similarities to a case nine days ago, when 14 men were found in a shallow grave in the same area. Those men, all Sunni farmers from the countryside south of Baghdad, had also been blindfolded and shot execution-style. Police said they were investigating to determine whether the cases were connected.
Separately, 11 more bodies were found late Saturday at a deserted chicken farm in Huqoul, a town about 25 miles south of the capital, police Capt. Muthna Khalid Ali told the Associated Press. The victims had their hands tied behind their backs and gunshot wounds to the head, according to an AP journalist at the scene….