January 8, 1999

Report of Iraqi Executions By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO -- Iraq has executed 81 political detainees, including army officers accused in a plot to kill Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi opposition group said today. The group, the Center for Human Rights, said the executions took place in a prison near Baghdad in mid-December. Iraq refuses to comment on such charges. The center provided a list of names of the prisoners it said were killed and said 15 bodies were returned to their families with a warning not to conduct any public mourning.