Iraqi police found 47 bodies around the capital in the past 24 hours, police said on Saturday. Most of the bodies were found with their hands bound and some bore signs of torture, Reuters reported.
26 bodies were found in the mainly Sunni western part of Baghdad with the other 21 found in eastern Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite side. The United Nations has said an average of 100 Iraqis are killed every day.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military denied reports on Saturday that Iraq intens to dig a giant ring of trenches around Baghdad. Iraq's Interior Ministry declared earlier this week that it intends to establish 28 checkpoints that would allow controlled access to the city, while closing off other roads as part of a security crackdown.
The New York Times quoted an Interior Ministry spokesman on Saturday as saying the Iraqis would also dig a giant trench around the city of seven million people. "We're going to build a trench around Baghdad so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly," Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf told the newspaper.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
