PROBE INTO NAJAF KILLINGS

[Talon]

PROBE INTO NAJAF KILLINGS

A criminal investigation is under way into how at least 25 bodies were found in a court building in Najaf.

The decomposing bodies were discovered after rebel cleric Moqtada al Sadr agreed to leave the besieged Imam Ali shrine.

Members of Sadr's Mehdi Army said the bodies were those of fighters killed in the three-week battle against US-led forces.

But Iraqi police officers at the scene said the dead men were policemen and civilians.

Many had been mutilated or burned. There were claims people had been tortured in the basement of the court building.

Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi said: "The Iraqi government will not be a spectator. Iraqi police are conducting an investigation to register all the facts.

"A team will investigate the dates of death, the causes of death and methods of torture.

"After all is done, the judicial system will have its say."

Sadr's religious courts in Najaf, which were open to people from across the country, operated outside Iraq's secular law.

They had been denounced by the Iraqi interim government and Najaf's police force.

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