18 Sunnis kidnapped later found shot dead

Police say bodies found beheaded

BAGHDAD — Men dressed as Iraqi soldiers abducted 18 Sunnis, whose bullet-ridden corpses turned up in farmland just south of Baghdad, authorities said Friday, a grim reminder of the worst days of sectarian killings that plagued the country after the U.S. invasion.

Police said officers later discovered the beheaded corpses of three men in Baghdad’s eastern suburbs, their hands tied behind their backs. The apparently targeted killings come after similar killings earlier this week, raising fears that the country, already embroiled in months of rising violence, could see the return of Shiite and Sunni Muslim death squads roaming the streets.

“These recent killings show that the fears by many Iraqis that their country is heading to darker days similar to 2006-2007 are true and that the wounds of the past are not healed yet,” Baghdad-based political analyst Hadi Jalo said. “If the government does not take effective measures to stop the sectarian tension and security deterioration, I think that we should expect more such killings.”

Authorities found the bodies early Friday in farmland near the Sunni town of Mishahda, 20 miles north of Baghdad. Gunmen in four cars abducted the men, who included two army officers and Mishahda’s mayor, from their homes late Thursday.

Police later said it appeared the men were killed by gunshot wounds to the head. A Baghdad morgue official confirmed receiving the 18 bodies. He said all the relatives who came forward to claim the bodies were Sunnis.