American and Iraqi troops today unearthed 37 bodies in a mass grave north-east of Baghdad, the US military said.

The corpses were discovered near Muqdadiyah, an area that has seen frequent fighting between US troops and Sunni fighters in the volatile Diyala province.

No further details were provided about the discovery. Such finds have been growing more frequent as US-led operations, backed by Sunnis revolting against al-Qaida in Iraq, have cleared fighters strongholds.

Iraqi troops continue to clash with Shia militias across the oil-rich south of the country and in Baghdad. The militias have responded by targeting the US- protected green zone in the Iraqi capital.

This week the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion passed 4,000.

There are no precise figures for Iraqi casualties, but Iraq Body Count, which records civilian casualties reported in the media, said this month it estimated up to 89,300 civilians had been killed since 2003. Statistical studies based on fieldwork in Iraq put the figure in the hundreds of thousands.

PHOTO CAPTION

A human skull is pictured at a mass grave in southern Iraq in 2007.

The Guardian