Bodies of 18 men found in minibus in Baghdad

A damaged vehicle of Iraq's Interior Minister lies on a road after a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad. Picture / Reuters

BAGHDAD - The bound and blindfold bodies of 18 men who had been strangled were found in a minibus in a mainly Sunni Arab district of the Iraqi capital, apparent victims of a sectarian war being waged by armed factions.

The identities of the 18 men were uncertain, police said. All had been strangled, although medical and police sources gave conflicting accounts as to whether they had been hanged or garrotted. Some bore signs of torture.

In another sign of the escalating violence, a roadside bomb hit a convoy of cars assigned to Iraq's interior minister in Baghdad, killing at least one person, but minister Bayan Jabor, a Shi'ite, was not present, ministry sources said.

Jabor is a hate figure for Sunnis. His ministry has been accused by Sunnis and other groups of condoning death squads operating inside the ministry targeting Sunnis. Jabor denies it.

The 18 bodies, several with bloodstains, were seen by Reuters reporters at the hospital. They were dressed in civilian clothes and were young and middle-aged men.

"We found a rope round the neck of one of the victims," a source at Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital said.

Similar incidents in the past have provoked anger among rival communities. The bodies were found just before midnight local time near the Amriya district of western Baghdad.

The area has been a stronghold of Sunni insurgent groups. Local people have accused the Shi'ite-led, US-backed government's police and other security forces of abducting and killing Sunni civilians - an accusation the police deny.

The dumping of bodies exhibiting signs of torture and killed execution-style has become a feature of Iraq's violence, which has raised fears that it may slide into all-out civil war.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb in Falluja, west of Baghdad, killed four civilians and wounded two today, police said. A similar bombing in central Baghdad killed two police officers and wounded two. Six civilians were also hurt.

- REUTERS