NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - At least 25 charred and bloated bodies were discovered in the basement of a religious court set up by rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr in Najaf's Old City, police said.

The bodies were brought up to ground level by police and Iraqi national guardsmen and could be seen lying in the courtyard, an AFP correspondent said.

"We entered the building which was being used as Moqtada Sadr's court and we discovered in the basement a large number of bodies of police and ordinary civilians," said the deputy head of the Najaf police, General Amer Hamza al-Daami.

"Some were executed, others were mutilated and others were burned."

A pungent odour of death hung over the courtyard where the bodies lay, their clothes soiled and muddy, the AFP correspondent said.

An array of beer cans littered the ground and a national guardsman said: "Look with your own eyes -- they drank beer and then they killed."

The consumption of alcoholic drinks is strictly forbidden under Islam.

One witness, Rahri Hussein, said he was close to the mausoleum when "a young man asked everyone to come to the court building because he said he was tortured there and he was convinced that there were prisoners still being held in there.

"When we got down there we found only two people alive, the uncle of the police chief and a boy. The rest were just dead bodies."

Adel al-Jazairi, the uncle and driver of Najaf police chief Ghaleb al-Jazairi, was kidnapped by militiamen on August 8.

-http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...police_execute

DAMN TERRORISTS, we should burn all terrorists alive

WHY do these reports never make it to the media in any great detail? If the Americans kill 3 innocent people, it's portrayed as the end of the world. If the enemy does the same, it goes unnoticed!!!!

How true, I just recently read a report of an American Marine, earning the Navy Cross for bravery and valor, i read the whole report on what he did to earn it and it is truly amazing, i never once saw this on the news, it was probably displayed in his home town for one day, then they went back to the prisoner abuse b******t.

It's almost always like that...

Has anyone else noticed the mention of Beer? Al sadr is an Islamic cleric, and alcohol Is forbidden In the Muslim religion! The hypocrites In that religion, why are clerics throughout the woprld not denouncing this man!