Iraq discovers remains of 150 Kurds in south Iraq

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi officials flew the remains of 150 Kurds found in a mass grave home to Kurdistan on Wednesday, after a moving ceremony that paid tribute to victims of repression under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

The mass grave was first discovered by a farmer in an area near the southern city of Najaf three months ago, containing the remains of men, women and children. Officials identified them as Kurds by documents on some of the bodies.

For the ceremony at Najaf airport, the coffins were set out in five rows wrapped in flags of Iraq and the autonomous Kurdish region, before being loaded into a cargo plane and flown to the Kurdish regional capital, Arbil.

Tens of thousands of Kurds were killed, villages were razed, and many civilians were rounded up into camps in southern Iraq during Saddam's "Anfal" campaign against Kurds in 1987-1988.

"The mass grave is one of 45 mass graves found in Najaf. Men, women and children were buried alive by the regime," said Asaad Abu Gilel, governor of Najaf Province, at the ceremony.

"The remains of 150 people means 150 cases for which the previous regime should face justice," said Wijdan Michael, Iraq's Minister of Human rights.

Thousands of bodies were found in mass graves after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple the dictator, many of them believed to be Shi'ites killed during uprisings in the south in the 1990s. Michael apologized for having only one team in her ministry working on mass graves of the ousted regime.

(Reporting by Khalid Farhan in Najaf; writing by Aseel Kami; editing by Peter Graff)