Iraqi army finds 30 bodies in shallow graves

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi army unearthed 30 decomposed bodies in a series of shallow graves in northern Iraq's volatile Diyala province, the army said on Saturday.

The bodies were found over three days in the predominantly Shi'ite village of Albu-Toma, north of Baghdad, where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants once ruled and carried out frequent mass sectarian killings against Shi'ites.

"We know this area contains many graves. We may find more bodies in the future," an army officer on the scene, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak, told Reuters.

Iraqi security forces regularly uncover mass graves, most of them left over from a 2006/7 sectarian conflict that brought Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war. Police found 23 bodies in a mass grave near the northern city of Samarra on Wednesday. (Reporting by Khalid al-Ansary; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Michael Roddy)