A police spokesman on Thursday said police had located 14 unidentified bodies in civilian clothes at several sites near the town of Mahmoudiyah, about 30 kilometers south of Baghdad. He said all had been shot to death.
Meanwhile, an American soldier was killed Wednesday in a non-combat accident in central Iraq, the military said.
In another development, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's chief attorney has dismissed his client had confessed to ordering executions and waging a campaign against Kurds in which thousands of people died.
According to Reuters, a statement from the attorney, Khalil Dulaimi, stressed: "There was no confession by the president and all the investigations in this case do not implicate him at all." Earlier this week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told state television that Saddam made confessions.
