Police uncovered nearly 50 bodies with gunshot wounds in Baghdad over the past day, an Interior Ministry source said on Monday, according to Reuters. An Interior Ministry official disclosed 50 bodies were found in various parts of Baghdad on Sunday. Most of the victims bore signs of torture.
In Monday's worst attack, gunmen killed three government agricultural engineers and their driver in a drive-by shooting as they headed to work Monday morning in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad. A similar attack killed a man and woman driving in a town in the same area.
In Baghdad, a news editor at an Iraqi radio station that provides news and educational programming was shot and killed as he traveled to work.
Also Monday, a U.S. helicopter went down in a lake west of the Iraqi capital, killing four Marines in Anbar province, the military said Monday.
The military said the helicopter, which carried 16 people, was not believed to have been shot down Sunday, but made an "emergency landing near the shore of Lake Qadisiyah. Twelve passengers survived the latest accident, the AP reported.
At least 10 American service members died over the weekend, including five in Anbar.
Earlier, the deaths of nine American troops were announced on Sunday, many killed in western Anbar province. The fatalities took the military's losses since the March 2003 invasion to 2,894, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
On Sunday, at least 30 Iraqis were killed and 50 bodies were found in Baghdad. Thirty-five of the bodies were uncovered in Karkh, a majority Sunni district on the west bank of the Tigris, while the remaining 15 were found in Rusafa, a mainly Shiite area on the eastern side of the river.
