Police find 14 bodies in orchard near Baghdad

DHULUIYA, Iraq, Oct 13 (Reuters) The bodies of 14 construction workers, their throats slit and their hands and legs bound, were found in a rural area near Baghdad, police said today.

Police said the labourers, among 17 workers who had been kidnapped after leaving their work yesterday, were discovered in an orchard near Dhuluiya, 40 km north of Baghdad, a town in central Sunni Muslim Salahedin province.

A police source said most of the victims were from the mainly Shi'ite town of Balad, north of Baghdad. They had been snatched from their vehicle at dawn and killed by unidentified gunmen, police said.

The motive was not clear but Iraq has been gripped by sectarian killings pitching Shi'ites against Sunni Arabs since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February.

Police imposed a daylight curfew in Dhuluiya.

REUTERS SP HT1604