Fifty-three blindfolded bodies found in Iraq 

Iraqi security forces found 53 corpses, blindfolded and handcuffed, south of Baghdad on  as Shi’ite and Kurdish leaders traded accusations over an Islamist insurgency raging in the country’s Sunni provinces.
Media from England has reported that dozens of bodies were discovered near the mainly Shi’ite Muslim village of Khamissiya, with bullets to the chest and head, the latest mass killing since Sunni insurgents swept through northern Iraq.

“Fifty-three unidentified corpses were found, all of them blindfolded and handcuffed,” Sadeq Madloul, governor of the mainly Shi’ite southern province of Babil, has been quoted by the media. He said the victims appeared to have been killed overnight after being brought by car to an area near the main highway running from Baghdad to the southern provinces, about 25 km (15 miles) southeast of the city of Hilla.The identity and sectarian affiliation of the dead people was not immediately clear, he said.
Sunni militants have been carrying out attacks around the southern rim of Baghdad since spring. In response, Shi’ite militias have been active in rural districts of Baghdad, abducting Sunnis they suspect of terrorism, many of whom later turn up dead.

Mass killings of scores of victims have become a regular occurrence in Iraq for the first time since the worst days of sectarian and ethnic cleansing in 2006-2007.

Amnesty International and the United Nations have reported several other suspected incidents of mass killings of prisoners in government custody.   Abductions have also increased. On Friday, 17 Sunni Muslims were taken from the Musayyib area and briefly held by security forces and Shi’ite militia, a local tribal leader said, while a prominent sheikh was also kidnapped by unidentified men.