ID clues rare in mass graves in Iraq - Yahoo! News

BAGHDAD - The red-and-white identification card was faded. But the name was legible and the picture of the man with the necktie and tidy mustache was clear.

Rashid Aboud Awad, who worked in a medicine storage facility in Ramadi, was last seen alive by his wife and children when he went off swimming in nearby Lake Tharthar, once Saddam Hussein's favorite fishing spot and more recently part of an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold west of Baghdad.

Awad's remains were discovered last week in a mass grave along with more than 20 other bodies near the manmade lake surrounded by rugged and sun-bleached scrubland.

More than 150 bodies have been unearthed in recent months from mass graves around Lake Tharthar. It's seen as the grisly legacy of al-Qaida control of Iraq's western deserts until being ousted early this year in an uprising by local tribes. The revolt was spurred — at least in part — by their claims of extremist brutalities.

Each mass grave uncovered around Tharthar and elsewhere in Iraq — so far at least 12 burial sites — appears to offer more evidence of the fate of Iraqis who challenged al-Qaida and its backers.

ID Clues Rare in Mass Graves in Iraq

Associated Press

Fri Dec 14

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