The decapitated bodies of three men, their heads strapped to their backs, were found dumped in nylon bags by a roadside north of Baghdad today, Iraqi police and US officials said.
The bodies were discovered by a group of Iraqi National Guardsmen shortly after dawn as they patrolled near the town of Dujail, 60 km north of the capital. The US military said initial indications were that the dead men were Arabs.
The development comes after a sharp surge in violence over the past three days, with at least 150 Iraqis killed in bomb blasts, fighting and other attacks. A car bomb in central Baghdad yesterday killed 47 and wounded 114.
Iraqi police said two of the bodies had tattoos written in the Roman alphabet - one saying "HECER", and the other a letter H. The third body had tattoos written in Arabic script but the words were not Arabic. There were no documents on the corpses.
Two were clothed in jeans and t-shirts and the third was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, the US military said.
Dozens of foreigners have been abducted in Iraq in recent months, many of them truck drivers from countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Kuwait. Several of those hostages have been beheaded after captors' demands were not met.
At least four Westerners are also being held - two male French journalists and two female aid workers from Italy.
A group in Samarra, north of Dujail, claims to be holding two Australians and two East Asians but has provided no proof. Australia has dispatched a special team to investigate.
There was no let up in the violence today, with at least 10 people killed, two of them women, when US troops clashed with insurgents in Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad, witnesses and Iraq's Health Ministry said.
A car bomb at an Iraqi National Guard post in Suwayra, south of Baghdad, killed two people and wounded at least 10, a spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry said. In Baquba, north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb wounded four policemen and a civilian.
Separately, the US military said a marine had been killed during fighting west of Baghdad on Tuesday, raising to at least 769 the number of US troops killed in action in Iraq.