Iraqi cops find 85 bodies in 24 hrs

The dead included at least 27 bodies stacked in a mass grave in an eastern Shia neighborhood of Baghdad.

The bloodshed the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since bombers destroyed an important Shia shrine last month followed weekend attacks in a teeming Shia slum in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded.

Iraq's Interior Ministry announced a ban on driving in the capital to coincide with the first meeting of the new parliament Thursday. The ban takes effect at 8 p.m. Wednesday and lasts until 4 p.m. Thursday.

Squabbling over the composition of a new government has delayed the inaugural session since the results of Dec. 15 elections were confirmed more than a month ago.

Leaders of Iraq's main ethnic and religious blocs, meanwhile, began a series of marathon meetings Tuesday to try to break the deadlock. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been shuttling between the main factions, joined the session hosted by Shia leader Adbul-Aziz al-Hakim.

The stakes are high for Washington, which hopes a strong and inclusive central government can stabilize Iraq so US forces can start drawing down in the summer.

Most of the corpses were found in Baghdad, while three were found in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Acting on an anonymous tip, police found a 6-by-8-yard hole in an empty field. It contained at least 27 dead men most of them in their underwear in Kamaliyah, a mostly Shia east Baghdad suburb, said Interior Ministry Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi. He estimated they had been dead for three days.