In January, 106 political detainees were killed in...

In January, 106 political detainees were killed in three mass executions in Abu Ghurayb prison near Baghdad, the Iraqi Communist Party accused in a statement faxed to Reuters in Cairo on April 19. It listed all the alleged victims by name. It said most of those killed were from the mainly Shiite Muslim southern Iraq and had been in detention since a 1991 uprising that was crushed by the Sunni-led government of President Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the Gulf War. The statement said the third bout of killing had taken place on January 26, when 11 civilians and 4 military officers who had been sentenced 3 months earlier were executed. The sentences were carried out in the presence of a prominent member of the Special Guard [elite force assigned to protect Saddam Hussein, family and close allies], Lt-Gen. Nayif Hatam al-Duri. Bodies of those executed were not handed over to their families but buried at night in an area west of Baghdad. These executions were part of a process of liquidating political prisoners and came after the execution at Abu Ghurayb prison of 33 people convicted in criminal cases. The bodies were buried in a mass grave under the supervision of Police Colonel Diaa Mahmoud Didan el-Takriti in the Hasswa area south of Baghdad two days later. The allegations could not be confirmed.