A mass grave containing the remains of 12 people, including a paramedic who disappeared more than a year ago, was unearthed in in an area long controlled by al-Qaida in Iraq, officials said Monday. In the capital, an Interior Ministry aide was gunned down in his car, police said, according to AP. Two of the decomposed bodies were beheaded, according to an official at Fallujah General Hospital, where the bodies were taken after their discovery on Sunday. 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, and some of the deaths dated to 18 months ago. Along with the bodies was a Health Ministry card that belonged to the missing paramedic, according to footage from AP Television News. Iraqi troops unearthed the bodies Sunday afternoon near Lake Tharthar, a man-made body of water about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Baghdad that has been the site of several mass graves found in recent months. Since ousting extremists in some of the country's most violent areas, Iraqis from both Islamic sects have stepped up their patrols for the missing, leading to more discoveries. In November, two other mass graves were found near the lake, one containing 40 bodies and another with 29 bodies. Elsewhere last month, a grave containing 17 corpses was unearthed near Baqouba, 55 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Officials said at the time the bodies were likely those of people seized at fake checkpoints and murdered because of their sectarian affiliation.
