U.N. Report Condemns Torture in Iraq

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A new U.N. human rights report condemned continuing insurgent violence in Iraq while issuing a stinging indictment of alleged torture and summary executions by Interior Ministry forces.

The bimonthly report by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq cited "serious allegations of extra-judicial executions taking place which underline a deterioration in the situation of law and order."

The United Nations report, released Thursday, took special note of the Aug. 25 discovery of "the bodies of 36 men, blindfolded, handcuffed, bearing signs of torture and summarily executed" near the Iranian border.

A top Sunni cleric has said the men's bodies, found in a dry riverbed, were believed to be those of Sunni Arabs kidnapped a day earlier from their northern Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriyah.

"Families of the victims reported to the Human Rights Office that the men had been detained on 24 August ... following an operation carried out by forces linked to the Ministry of Interior," the United Nations said.

The same thing was reported after 11 men were detained by Interior Ministry forces on July 10 in a different Baghdad neighborhood and "found dead three days later at the Medico Legal Institute," according to the report."
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