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More Than 50 Bodies Found in Iraq River
Iraqi President Says More Than 50 Bodies Found in Tigris River; 19 Bodies Left in Soccer Stadium
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announcing that the bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, during a news conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 20, 2005. The bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in the Madain region earlier this month. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
By SAMEER N. YACOUB Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq Apr 20, 2005  The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad.
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.
"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."
In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot.
Residents said they believed the victims all men in civilian clothes were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
O presidente do Iraque,   Jalal Talabani,  em uma conferência de imprensa a repórteres na quarta-feira disse:

:''Mais de 50 corpos foram resgatados do rio Tigre e temos os nomes completos  daqueles que foram mortos e aqueles criminosos que cometeram esses crimes. (...) terroristas cometeram esses crimes. Não é verdadeiro que não houve nenhum refém. Houve, porém eles foram mortos e eles lançaram os corpos no Tigre.''

Ele prometeu mais detalhes nos dias próximos dias.

A conferência  presidencial para a imprensa foi em resposta a eventos que  vieram à tona por causa de relatórios de funcionários xiitas. Eles disseram no sábado que não menos que 100 xiitas foram tomados refém por rebeldes sunitas, e ameaçados de  morte,  na cidade de al-Madain, perto de Bagdá. Uma força de segurança iraquiana segunda-feira vasculhou a cidade de aproximadamente mil famílias, mas não encontrou nenhuma evidência que comprovasse a existência de  reféns. Os funcionários de xiita depois disseram que os corpos, que acreditava-se  ser dos reféns, foram encontrados no rio Tigre.

Em um incidente separado a 200 km ao norte de Bagdá,  em Haditha, depois que  repórteres e residentes escutaram tiros, eles encontraram os corpos de 19 homens,  executados em um estádio de futebol, nesta última quarta-feira.   Acredita-se  que os mortos foram soldados iraquianos  executados por rebeldes  anti-governo, segundo um funcionário de Ministério do Interior, embora as vítimas não estivessem  vestidas com  traje militar. Levantou-se a hipótese de  que eles estavam  a se dirigir para  casa para uma festa que marca o aniversário do profeta Muhammad quando foram raptados pelos  insurgentes.