The bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shias who were taken off a bus and executed last month while seeking work at a US military base have been found in a field near Mosul.
Police said the insurgents shot the men, who ranged in age from 14 to 20, on Dec. 8 after stopping their two mini-buses about 30 miles west of Mosul.
Their hands were tied behind their back and each was shot in the head, police said. All of the men were Shia Muslims from Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Kadhimiya who had been hired by an Iraqi contractor to work at a US base in Mosul.
The bodies were discovered yesterday, the same day a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-laden car outside a police academy south of Baghdad in Hillah during a graduation ceremony, killing 20 people.
Mr Ayad Allawi, Prime Minister of Iraq
A second car bomber killed five Iraqi policemen in Baqouba - bringing the death toll to at least 90 so far this week in surging violence aimed at derailing this month's elections.
In a separate execution-style incident, the bodies of three Jordanian truck drivers shot in the head were discovered on the outskirts of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. "This is the fate of anyone who cooperates with the Americans," said a note placed on one of the bodies.
A Marine belonging to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action today while conducting operations in the Al Anbar province in western Iraq, the military said in a statement that did not give further details.
Despite the mounting attacks and death toll, Iraq's interim leader again insisted the ballot would go ahead as planned.
"We will not allow the terrorists to stop the political process in Iraq," Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said "The elections process is the basis for the deepening of the national unity in Iraq."
While Allawi and US military commanders insisted parliamentary elections must be held as scheduled on Jan. 30, interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, who holds only ceremonial powers, left open the possibility that the vote could be postponed.
"I think that we should continue working on how to hold the elections on schedule, but we should not lack the courage if we see that this is impossible," said al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim tribal leader.
If the election takes place, it is expected to shift power to the Shiite Muslim community, an estimated 60 percent of the population that has been dominated by the Sunni Arab minority since modern Iraq was created after World War I.