U.S. & World

BAGHDAD (CBS) ― Iraqi troops unearthed a mass grave with the remains of 12 people including a paramedic who disappeared more than a year ago, officials said Monday, the latest grisly discovery in a former stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Morgue workers wearing masks to protect them from the stench of decomposing bodies dug through bags of bones and tattered clothes as they sought clues to the identities of those killed.

More than 100 bodies, including women and children, have turned up since October in the remote desert terrain surrounding Lake Tharthar, a man-made body of water straddling the predominantly Sunni provinces of Anbar and Salahuddin about 60 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Most of the victims have no IDs, but officials have said they were likely abducted and murdered by al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents.

The U.S. military has claimed significant progress since last summer in forcing al Qaeda in Iraq out of Anbar province with the help of Sunni tribal leaders and local officials. Iraqis forces have taken advantage of these recent security gains to step up patrols in areas previously considered no-go zones.

But Lake Tharthar, which used to be a resort area popular with officials under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, has remained one of the hardest areas to control. The newly discovered mass grave was located between the lake and the Anbar city of Fallujah.

Two of the bodies found Sunday were beheaded, according to an official at Fallujah General Hospital, where the remains were taken. Hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to release details of the discovery, said some appeared to have been killed as recently as four months ago, while other deaths dated to 18 months ago.

A Health Ministry card that belonged to the missing paramedic provided a rare solid identity clue.

Two other mass graves were found near the lake last month - one containing 40 bodies and another with 29. Twenty-five other bodies, some decapitated, were found in October, and authorities said the victims apparently died within the previous three months.

Authorities have also found mass graves in other parts of the country where violence has decreased. Seventeen corpses were unearthed last month at a site near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The areas in which the bodies were found are both former al Qaeda strongholds, suggesting the terror network was behind the killings.

Shiite militia fighters also abduct rivals and shoot them execution-style, but the numbers of those deaths have fallen sharply since radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire among his fighters last August.

American commanders have been cautious about their recent successes as Iraqis and U.S. troops continue to face attacks.

At least 20 people were killed or found dead on Monday, including the mutilated bodies of four oil facility guards who were kidnapped the day before, police said. Col. Khali al-Zubaie, a spokesman for the Iraqi army in Kirkuk, said a fifth man who disappeared with the guards remained missing.

U.S. troops killed one Iraqi and wounded three Monday north of Baghdad after opening fire at a vehicle they said failed to stop at a checkpoint following an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq, the military said.

In Baghdad, gunmen in two cars fired on a Sunni Interior Ministry aide, the Maj. Gen. Fauzi Hussein Muhammed, as he returned home, killing him and wounding his driver, police said.

U.S. officials are pushing Iraqi politicians to take advantage of the overall decline in violence to forge power-sharing agreements among Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

In a reminder of the obstacles, Iraqi security forces on Monday carried out the second raid in a week against the office of one of the country's most powerful Sunni politicians.

Officials said the troops found bombs, grenades and other explosives in the basement of Adnan al-Dulaimi's office, five days after the initial raid in which the hard-line leader's bodyguard was found with the keys to an explosives-laden car in his pocket.

Al-Dulaimi, who leads the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni parliamentary bloc, frequently accuses Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government of favoring the Shiites.

Several Shiite politicians have previously called for legal action against al-Dulaimi for what they said was his incitement of sectarian strife, suggesting that the latest events could be part of efforts to build a case against him.

On Monday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, expressed "dismay" over the government's treatment of al-Dulaimi, urging officials to avoid "making accusations without legal basis."
 
Key Figures About The War Since March 2003

U.S. TROOP LEVELS:

- November 2007: 162,000

- January 2007: 137,000

CASUALTIES:

- Confirmed U.S. military deaths as of Nov. 30, 2007: 3,880

- Confirmed U.S. military wounded as of Nov. 30, 2007: 28,582.

- U.S. military deaths for November 2007: 37, lowest monthly toll since March 2006.

- Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of Oct. 30, 2007: 1,073.

- Iraqi civilian deaths from war-related violence: Estimated at more than 75,000, with one controversial study last year contending there were as many as 655,000. According to Associated Press figures, there were at least 718 total Iraqi deaths in November 2007, the lowest monthly toll since January 2006.

- Assassinated Iraqi academics: 338.

- Journalists killed on assignment: 124.

COST:

- Stepped-up military operations are costing about $12 billion a month, with Iraq accounting for $10 billion per month, according to a July 2007 analysis by the Congressional Research Service.

- Total cost to the U.S. government so far is more than $473 billion.

- According to a November 2007 report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, total economic costs for the Iraq war are estimated at $1.3 trillion for the period from 2002 to 2008. This figure represents the hidden costs of the war beyond the direct budgetary appropriations, including interest costs of borrowing these funds, lost investment, long-term veterans' health care and oil market disruptions.

-  A January 2007 study by Linda Bilmes of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government put the total projected cost of providing medical care and disability benefits to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan at $350 billion to $700 billion.

OIL PRODUCTION:

- Prewar: 2.58 million barrels per day.

- Nov. 25, 2007: 2.39 million barrels per day.

ELECTRICITY:

- Prewar nationwide: 3,958 megawatts. Hours per day (estimated): four to eight.

- Nov. 19, 2007, nationwide: 4,000 megawatts. Hours per day: 12.6.

- Prewar Baghdad: 2,500 megawatts. Hours per day (estimated): 16-24.

- Nov. 19, 2007, Baghdad: Megawatts not available. Hours per day: 9.2.

- Note: Current Baghdad megawatt figures are no longer reported by the U.S. State Department's Iraq Weekly Status Report.

TELEPHONES:

- Prewar land lines: 833,000.

- March 13, 2007: 1,111,000.

- Prewar cell phones: 80,000.

- June 2007: 9,204,000.

WATER:

- Prewar: 12.9 million people had potable water.

- Oct. 18, 2007: 19.6 million people have potable water.

SEWERAGE:

- Prewar: 6.2 million people served.

- Oct. 18, 2007: 11.3 million people served.

INTERNAL REFUGEES:

- Nov. 30, 2007: At least 2.4 million people have been displaced inside Iraq; over 800,000 alone are in northern Iraq.

- Iraqis have made some 19,800 asylum claims during the first six months of 2007 -  a 45 percent increase compared to the previous six months, when 13,600 applications were received.

EMIGRANTS:

- Prewar: 500,000 Iraqis living abroad.

- Nov. 30, 2007: More than 2.2 million in neighboring countries.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)