The new U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, is preparing a series of security-related measures that include permitting soldiers to shoot looters on sight, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Bremer, outlining his approach at a meeting with senior staff members on Tuesday, also said he was eager to hire more police officers and ban Baath Party members from serving above a certain rank in future governments, the newspaper reported.
"They are going to start shooting a few looters so that word gets around," The Times quoted an official who attended the meeting with Bremer as saying. "I think you are going to see a change in the rules of engagement within a few days to get the situation under control."
Meanwhile, the remains of 15,000 people killed by the regime of Saddam have been found in mass graves discovered last week in the central city of Hilla, site of ancient Babylon, the Iraqi National Congress said.
"In the last week, four sites have been discovered in Al-Hilla city alone, with approximately 15,000 bodies," said Entifadh Qanbar, a spokesman of the group led by Ahmed Chalabi.
"Citizens are excavating with great sadness and no assistance, collecting bones. Mothers and fathers are trying to identify their children with ID cards and scraps of clothes that they were last seen in," he told reporters.
(Albawaba.com)
