Huge mass grave found in Iraq
Iraqis have uncovered what is thought to be one of the largest mass graves found since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.

BBC correspondent Barbara Plett says the remains of up to 3,000 people had been found so far, and the total uncovered could be as many as 15,000.

The grave was found in the small village of al-Mahawil, located near the city of Hilla, about 56 miles (90 km) south of Baghdad.

Among the remains are thought to be the bodies of political prisoners killed after a Shia Muslim uprising against Saddam in 1991 but also entire families.

BBC correspondents say the stench at the site is unbearable and a group of US marines who visited said it was like looking into hell.

Human rights groups believe that up to 200,000 people may be buried in sites across the country.

Search for loved ones

Iraqis dug using a mechanical digger and even their hands to find the bodies at al-Mahawil, which they painstakingly attempted to identify from clothing and identity cards on the bodies.

One young man told Reuters news agency he was sure he had found the remains of his brother because he recognised the shirt he always used to wear.

One woman clutched a plastic bag of bones she said had belonged to her husband's best friend, weeping as she waited for her husband's remains to be found.

"We expect many more here," said local doctor Rafid al-Husseini.

"We are trying to match the remains with the names... provided by families in the area.

"We found bodies on top of each other. Relatives are identifying them from their glasses or other personal effects found among the bodies."

Evidence

Rights groups have urged the international community to protect such sites, saying they are crime scenes containing evidence which may prove crucial to the prosecution of the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime.

However US Marine Major Al Schmidt told the BBC that they had to be respectful of the Iraqis who had suffered.

"This man [Saddam Hussein] committed a lot of atrocities [but] we are not going to stand here and disrupt them from their mourning," he said.

"We're going to come in as best we can and do what's best for these people."

Graves across Iraq

Families desperate to find loved ones have also been searching plots at the graveyard in Khan Banisaad, a village 30 km (19 miles) north-east of the Iraqi capital.

BBC correspondent Anu Anand says that squeezed between the graves of local villagers are hundreds of plots believed to contain bodies.

In their desperation to give their loved ones a proper burial, the families are disrupting the remains, destroying evidence that would be needed for any war crimes trials, our correspondent adds.

15,000... Human rights groups (not the coalition governments, but the independents) are estimating 200,000 Iraqis buried in mass graves. Twenty years, and that's 10,000 a year. Nowhere near the Holocaust or Rwanda, of course, but still utterly inhuman.

Or maybe just depressingly too human.