22 bodies found on Iraqi- Iranian borders

The Iraqi police found the bodies of 22 men, hand tightened, near the Iranian borders. Police sources said it found them in the surrounding of Basra town in Waset governorate south east of Baghdad. Relatives for the killed men said that some of the victims were kidnapped three months ago in the capital.

Meantime, two members of the civil defense department and their driver were killed and other two were injured when gunmen opened fire at their car in al-Amereyah area, west of Baghdad. Five members of the Iraqi police were injured in a bomb explosion that targeted their vehicle on Friday morning in Baqouba north of the capital.

In al-Basra south of Iraq, the British forces detained 12 persons suspected to be gunmen and confiscated huge amounts of weapons.

A British military spokesman refused to give more details on the identity of the detainees but indicated that they are suspected for the increase of bloody attacks against the British forces carried out recently in Basra.

Sources in the office of al-Shaheed ( martyr) and Sader in al-Basra told reporters that most of the detainees are followers of the Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sader. Other sources explained that among them are leaders of the internal affairs department in Basra, adding that some of them were detained from the police building attacked by the British forces by the end of September to release two of its soldiers.