Iraq | unrest
Najaf, Iraq | AFP | Tuesday 2/20/2019 - 04:25 UTC+8 | 156 words
Iraqi security forces on Tuesday found the bodies of six out of 12 people who were abducted over the weekend southwest of Baghdad, an official said.
"Armed men on motorbikes" abducted the group on Sunday as they collected truffles in the Al-Nukhaib region in the desert between Najaf and Al-Anbar provinces, security forces said in a statement Monday evening.
The governor of Al-Hira district in southern Najaf province, Abdul Wahed al-Fatlawi, told AFP on Tuesday that "the bodies of six people from the same clan" had been found.
They had been shot dead.
He said the bodies had been taken to a forensic lab in Karbala province, and accused the Islamic State group of carrying out the murders.
Iraq declared victory over the jihadist organisation in late 2017 following a punishing campaign to dismantle its self-declared "caliphate" covering a third of the country.
But IS militants have continued to carry out bombings, abductions and killings.
str-ac/par/rsc