Harry Esteve
Newhouse News Service
A series of shallow graves found in southern Iraq over the weekend appeared to contain the remains of four Western civilians, a spokesman for the National Guard said this week.
The victims appeared to have been executed, said Oregon Guard Maj. Arnold Strong.
"They found a polo shirt that had eight bullet holes in the back and lots of bloodstains," Strong said in a telephone interview Wednesday from Taji Camp, a U.S. Army base north of Baghdad.
The discovery was made Saturday by Oregon Guard soldiers. Strong said communication problems and chain-of- command delays prevented him from releasing the information sooner.
The remains, which were handed over to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI, have not been identified publicly, and neither their nationality nor cause of death had been confirmed.
But the soldiers who found them believe they were from Western countries, Strong said, based on the condition of the teeth and on the clothing, including the polo shirt and Levi's 501 jeans.
An Iraqi informant alerted the U.S. military to the location of the remains. The informant claimed to have seen the bodies in September in "fresher condition" and believed they were American or British based on their clothing and hair color, Strong said.
If so, this would be a stunning find. Seven Americans and a handful of civilians from other Western countries appear on lists of missing foreigners in Iraq.
Among those reported missing are Army Pfc. Keith "Matt" Maupin of Batavia, Ohio; Timothy Bell, a contract employee with Halliburton; Dean Sadek, a manager at the Baghdad airport; Roy Hallum, a contractor who was working for a Saudi firm; Sadeq Mohammed Sadeq, a Lebanese-American contractor; Aban Elias, an Iraqi-American engineer; and Kirk von Ackermann, a contractor.
Efforts to obtain more details on the remains were unsuccessful. "I don't have any information on it," said Capt. Patricia Brewer of the Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad.
At 3 a.m. Saturday, soldiers from the Oregon Guard's 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry received word that an informant had provided details about the bodies to a Marine Corps interpreter. The informant said soldiers would find the remains near the Al-Qaqaa munitions depot, about 17 miles southwest of Baghdad.
The platoon soon came across the remains. The graves, just outside a guard shack at the weapons depot, yielded two intact skulls, remnants of two others, plus fragments of vertebrae and some rib bones.
"The soldiers found evidence of foul play, including bloodstained clothing," Strong said. The remains were put in plastic bags and taken to a nearby U.S. Marine base. An Oregon Guard captain spoke to officials from the Army Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
© 2005 The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio