Thirteen bodies found in Iraqi mass grave - police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The bodies of 13 men have been found in a mass grave in Iraq's restive Diyala province, the latest in a series of grisly discoveries, police said on Tuesday.

They said the unidentified bodies had been dumped in a hole in the town of Muqdadiya, 90 km northeast of Baghdad, and that they had been found by U.S. forces.

However, a U.S. military spokesman said they had no reports of the find and that U.S. soldiers were not involved.

A local journalist told Reuters he had seen the bodies. Police said they were found handcuffed, had gunshot wounds in the head and showed signs of torture.

Even though attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, ethnically mixed Diyala remains a headache for the U.S. and Iraqi forces.

It is one of four provinces where they have launched offensives to root out al Qaeda militants, who have regrouped north of Baghdad after being ousted from former strongholds to the west and around the capital.

U.S. commanders say the Sunni Muslim militants have frequently clashed with U.S.-backed neighbourhood police patrols, mainly made up of Sunni Arab tribes who rebelled against al Qaeda.

Last week a grave containing 50 bodies was found in an area near Samarra, some 100 km north of Baghdad. In December, the bodies of around 20 men, women and children were found in a grave near Falluja, a former insurgent stronghold.