FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov 15 (AFP) - A painstaking search by US marines through the deserted streets and bullet-scarred houses of Fallujah on Monday uncovered 12 more Arab men who had been shot dead execution-style, an AFP reporter said.
Six bodes were found in one house in the south central part of the former rebel enclave, and six others in another home in an adjacent street, said the reporter, who is embedded with the US marines.
The dead men raised to 27 the number of corpses probably executed that have been seen by the AFP reporter since the marines entered Fallujah a week ago.
The first building resembled a normal family home, but inside told a different story.
Six bodies, dressed in sweat pants or underwear and t-shirts, lay dead on the floor, each with a bullet in the back or the side of the head.
The corpses, next to a couch with a blue blanket thrown over it, looked a few days old at best, the AFP reporter said.
In the second house, five bodies were found in a tangled heap inside a blackened room, while the sixth was slumped in a stairwell.
Maggots were chewing at their flesh, while blood splattered the wall.
Marine Captain Drew McNulty said he thought that the mujahdeen who had ruled Fallujah, before the insurgents took heavy losses in a US-led assault launched last Monday, had forced all males aged 15 to 50 to stay and fight.
"They probably kept the military-aged males and forced them to fight and those who refused they executed," he speculated.
11/15/2004 19:09 GMT - AFP