Iraq protesters call for unity govt

The US military yesterday said two US pilots died in a helicopter accident in western Baghdad. The accident was under investigation; the military said no hostile fire was involved.

"There was no hostile fire involved," it said in a statement, without giving details.

Dozens of US-led forces have been killed in helicopter crashes since the invasion of March 2003, some in accidents and some after being fired on by insurgents with shoulder-fired missiles or small arms.

In the Shia holy city of Karbala, municipal workers doing maintenance work uncovered remains that police believed were part of a mass grave thought to date back to 1991, when Saddam Hussein's regime put down a Shia uprising in the south.

On Tuesday, the remains discovered on Monday were sent for testing in an effort to identify the bodies, Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mashawy said. He did not say how many bodies were found and the police claim could not be independently verified.

Human rights organizations estimate that more than 300,000 people, mainly Kurds and Shia Muslims, were killed and buried in mass graves during Saddam Hussein's 23-year rule, which ended when U.S.-led forces toppled his regime in 2003.

A lull in violence followed the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. But that ended on Sunday, when 18 people were killed in attacks. On Monday, shootings and bombings killed at least two dozen people, including a US soldier.