BAGHDAD, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Iraqi officials were examining the remains of more than 150 people Wednesday found during the weekend in a mass grave northeast of Baghdad, police said.
The find was made Saturday and appears to be the bodies of children, women and Iraqi security forces, Baquba police Lt. Col. Ghalib Atiya al-Jabouri said.
The region of Diyala province was a hotbed of violence by al-Qaida insurgents between 2006 and 2008 between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, alSumaria said.
One of the hallmarks of al-Qaida's execution techniques was to blindfold the victims, tie their hands behind their backs and then shoot them in the head, police say.
Many of the bodies in the most recent discovery bore those marks, investigators said.
Thousands of missing people are on file with the Iraqi Red Crescent since the U.S.-led invasion and sectarian violence erupted, CNN said.
