Iraq Mass Grave: New Find Dates To Saddam Era

BAGHDAD — Iraq's Human Rights Ministry says a Saddam Hussein-era mass grave dating to his 1991 suppression of a Shiite revolt has been unearthed in the south.

Ministry's spokesman Kamil Ameen says government teams working on an irrigation project found the grave in an agricultural area in Maysan province.

Ameen told The Associated Press Tuesday that about 20 bodies were unearthed. The irrigation project has been put on hold until the excavation is complete.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppling Saddam's regime, mass graves have been found across Iraq.

Following Saddam's defeat in the first Gulf War, Iraq's Shiites revolted in the south, but were brutally suppressed. Hundreds of thousands are believed to have been killed.

Comments

[thecesar]

11:26 AM on 03/23/2010

There were WMD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5p-qIq32m8&feature=related

R3t@rded libs

[monkeysuit]

01:46 PM on 03/23/2010

Haaaa funny how they forget.

[sparky73]

10:55 AM on 03/23/2010

what does that matter? We should have never gone to Iraq. The Iraqi people were much better under the leadership of Saddam then they are now.

[Sam1234567]

11:22 AM on 03/23/2010

Tell that to the people's families in the mass grave.

[Durango]

11:25 AM on 03/23/2010

What does your post matter?

the Iraqi people are no longer under the rule of Saddam. And the country has to move forward.

BTW: Do you think Saddam killed those people personally? There are no doubt War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity that still need investigating and prosecuting from Saddam's time.

Just because Bush/Cheney hyped the reasons for war does not mean crimes were not committed.

Crimes that the people of Iraq will have to deal with.

[leftcoastindy]

10:50 AM on 03/23/2010

Yes or No?
Is the world a better place with saddam hussein dead?
Do not try to distract, detract from the question, just answer it."

The answer is a 'slam dunk' and easy to answer for anyone with half a brain, so I'll help you out.

NO ONE KINOWS and that my 'friend', is irrefutable.

[MightyObjectiveObserver]

10:41 AM on 03/23/2010

Yes, yes Saddam was a horrible, paranoid tyrant. But was removing him worth the price(lives lost and ruined, financial, prestige lost )? Couldn´t the West with all their technology and billions spent on intelligence agencies just assassinate the boogeyman? And what was the damn rush? That is for me the most condemning aspect, they could have waited for all relevant countries to verify the intelligence and get the Security Council resolution and make it legal. But that would have taken some real, hard intelligence, since they knew they didn´t have it and would never get the approval, they decided to go in before their "evidence" is publicly shredded to pieces. I saw the Powell representation live on TV and I thought :"Movable laboratories?They must have something, because those look like just another container.. They couldn´t just make this stuff up? It would be so easy to prove them wrong.." Well now they have been proven wrong, where´s the accountability for the ultimate crime?

[wolfmason]

12:48 PM on 03/23/2010

I don't think assassination was ever an option, since the man surrounded himself with a succession line of family members that were arguably as tyrannical in nature, if not more so. Perhaps the best that sort of situation could've yielded was a coup. Same goes for just letting him live out his reign and letting the chips fall where they may.

Fact is, no one will ever really know if GW's little desert adventure was worth the costs. Unless you're an idealogue on the issue, closure is relatively impossible.

[Hugatreetoday]

10:35 AM on 03/23/2010

There's probably no telling how many thousands of his own people he murdered. Iraqis will probably continue to find these mass grave sites for many, many years to come...sadly.

[ChangeurMind]

10:50 AM on 03/23/2010

The US military ended up murdering and devastating much, much more.... both Iraqi's and Americans. War criminals go untouched.

[smitallica]

10:25 AM on 03/23/2010

Wow. If only our STATED REASON for going in were mass graves. No, our STATED REASON was the threat od WMD. Let me know when they find a mass grave of those.

[leftcoastindy]

10:39 AM on 03/23/2010

So far we have found what, a few hundred bodies in mass graves?

Americans are responsible for what a few hundred thousand Iraqi deaths?

Nice rationalization there.

[LaughALott]

11:02 AM on 03/23/2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?_r=1&sq=uranium&st=nyt&scp=1&pagewanted=print

[ILuvBubbles]

10:22 AM on 03/23/2010

No WMD's have been located as yet?

[thecesar]

11:27 AM on 03/23/2010

yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5p-qIq32m8&feature=related

[OMG1]

09:41 AM on 03/23/2010

1. We killed far more Iraqis during the invasion and occupation of Iraq than Saddam did during his entire presidency.

2. We love a good dictator, even if the he kills his own people, as long as he does something for us in return.

3. Saddam killed his fellow Iraqis with weapons we gave him.

4. Even when he was killing his own people, we were buddies with him.

5. We didn't get involved until he threatened our oil supply.

6. One does not rescue people from tyranny by killing more than a million of them and stealing their oil.

[Jazzman323]

10:04 AM on 03/23/2010

The left in America and Saddam Hussein are the same thing.

[primordialsoup]

10:14 AM on 03/23/2010

That's an interesting comment, considering that it's the right that doesn't want the poor to have health care.

[ILuvBubbles]

10:18 AM on 03/23/2010

And the right loves them some BIG government!

[AnotherAngle]

10:19 AM on 03/23/2010

Stealing their oil? Well, where is it? Tell me.

That is such a lie. You should change your moniker to BS1.

[leftcoastindy]

10:43 AM on 03/23/2010

Oh so there is some other reason we went invaded Iraq? Something about how they didn't tell us what they did with the WMD's WE destroyed in the early 90's.

[Durango]

11:29 AM on 03/23/2010

There is no question the war in Iraq was Bush/Cheneys attempt to corner the worlds oil supply.

Don't agree with anything OMG posted, including the "threat" to US oil.

But if you don't know the war in Iraq was about oil:

You remain ignorant fool.

P.S. Bush/Cheney bungled that as well. Just like everything else those fool did.

[WhatDaBleep]

09:36 AM on 03/23/2010

So, if this is from the Saddam era - Saddam might have had Daddy Bush and Rumsfeld's help with this.

[capitalismisevil]

09:27 AM on 03/23/2010

Seriously? No libs think that it is a good thing that saddam is no longer around to create a need for more mass graves?

These are the same libs that would like to never hear about the mass graves in Kigali.

[ILuvBubbles]

09:33 AM on 03/23/2010

So your view is we should police the world with the blood of our troops? Whose next Darfur? Iran? Talk about BIG government!

[keepemhonest]

09:41 AM on 03/23/2010

Sure, they don't care about the living ... only a woman's fetus & oil fields.

[capitalismisevil]

09:59 AM on 03/23/2010

Hmm, interesting that billy clinton did nothing to prevent a genocide HE KNEW WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. More interesting is fact that billy "POLICED" the world when it came to genocide when it was being done to non-black people in Kosovo. Too bad he let it happen against black Africans, you are ok with this?

[keepemhonest]

09:40 AM on 03/23/2010

Capital

Your question is dishonest. Most humans think it was a breach of US Constitution, Treaties Ratified by the US & International laws to invade a country for oil fields.

W Administration intentionally manufactured data & L I E D to Americans, Congress & the world so W & ChainE could get their filthy hands on oil fields.

[capitalismisevil]

10:00 AM on 03/23/2010

Yes or No?

Is the world a better place with saddam hussein dead?

Do not try to distract, detract from the question, just answer it.

[monkeysuit]

09:12 AM on 03/23/2010

Hey HuffPo readers why to you hate America so much? I am certainly not a person that trusts the government but how does a story from an Iraqi human rights group turn into an attack on America through comments? Were the circumstances surrounding the invasion of Iraq false? Yes. Purposefully so, no one will ever truly know. Let me remind you that several countries shared the same intelligence that the US had. But it doesn't take away from the fact that Saddam killed and tortured the people of Iraq. I don't see how this turns into flag burning and Bush bashing.

Monkeysuit
http://randompoliticalthoughtsandnews.blogspot.com/

[grumpyfarmer]

09:26 AM on 03/23/2010

Stories like this remind people our military didn't remove Mary Poppins, they removed a brutal murderer. Stories like this make it just a little harder to sell the idea the Iraqis were better off under Saddam. This is why the Huff post doesn't care for these types of reports.

[Principaldad]

11:09 AM on 03/23/2010

If HP doesn't care for these types of reports then why did they post it on their front page? I don't see this story on the front page of FoxNews. It would seem that your claim is wrong.

In fact, most everyone agrees that Saddam Hussein was a brutal murderer and nobody is sorry he is gone. Most people in the US don't claim that Iraqis were better of under him, although with the rampant kiIIing that Iraq went through for several years some people could have believed that. However, a poll in 2007 found that the vast majority of the IRAQI PEOPLE believe that they were better off under Saddam (90% thought they were better off).

[DanMan2012]

10:33 AM on 03/23/2010

Kudos!

[latrobe]

09:10 AM on 03/23/2010

Can't we all at least agree that one good result of this was this horrible man (Sadam) is no longer in power killing his own people and terrorizing the region. Has our country so polarized that we can't give the other party credit for getting rid of a terrible dictator. I am afraid we are so afraid of war we would no longer intervene in Hitler's Germany if it would result in US loss of life.

[RAMstein]

11:27 AM on 03/23/2010

I'd feel better about spending our blood and treasure to remove him if we hadn't spent the 1980's supplying him with weapons and propping him up.

[alexis101]

08:36 AM on 03/23/2010

Mass graves left by Bush Sr. were the cause of Jr.'s invasion. This whole thing smells like cover up.

[RAMstein]

11:28 AM on 03/23/2010

Well.I'm sure it smells, that's for sure.

[den1953]

08:34 AM on 03/23/2010

That makes up for all the innocent Iraqis Bush killed!

[goddessNdiva]

08:29 AM on 03/23/2010

Tomorrow's mass grave thanks to America.