The bodies of 20 people, bound and shot in the head, have been found on a military firing range in the eastern suburbs of Baghdad, it emerged today.
The identities of the victims were unclear and the bodies appeared to have been there some time, one police source said.
They were found on Friday and were now in a Baghdad morgue, another police officer said.
Such finds have become a grim routine of the violence in Iraq. In the couple of months since a Shi'ite-led government was formed, more than 850 people have been killed, fuelling fears that the nation could pitch into civil war.
Insurgents among Saddam Hussein's once-dominant Sunni minority have stepped up attacks on US and Iraqi security forces and civilians while Sunni leaders have accused Shi'ite militias and government forces of attacking ordinary Sunnis - a charge the various groups and ministries deny.
A leading Sunni organisation, the Muslim Clerics Association, issued a statement saying there were 30 bodies found at the firing range in total. It said one body was identified as belonging to a Sunni Arab. It gave no details.