Iraqi police say they have found in the space of one day 60 bodies of people bound, tortured and shot in the capital, Baghdad.

They were found all over the city, from Sunni areas in the west to Shia districts in the east – but most were found in largely Sunni west Baghdad.

Sectarian killings are not unusual in the city but this is a large number for one day, a BBC correspondent says. Meanwhile, car bombs killed at least 22 people in Baghdad.

One device near the national sports stadium in the eastern Shaab district exploded in a parked car during the morning rush hour, killing 14 people including two policemen and wounding at least 57.

A bomb later went off near a police patrol in the Zayona district, also in the east, killing eight people and injuring at least 17.

In other developments, a mortar attack in central Baghdad wounded at least one policeman and several civilians.

The US military also announced the death of an American soldier wounded by “enemy action” in Anbar province.

Fifteen of the bodies found by police were discovered in eastern Baghdad where most of the city’s Shia live.

Police have not been able to identify any of the 60, let alone say whether they are Shia or Sunni, the BBC’s James Shaw reports.

Nor have they been able to explain what seems to be a sudden increase in sectarian violence, he adds.

GENOCIDE TRIAL

<B>Saddam case judge accused of being biased</B>

Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial demanded that the presiding judge step down, accusing him Wednesday of bias toward the deposed leader and his co-defendants.

“You allowed this court to become a political podium for the defendants,” roared the prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, as judge Abdullah al-Amiri listened.Saddam thundered against “agents of Iran and Zionism” and vowed to “crush your heads” after listening to Kurdish witnesses tell of the horrors committed by the fallen regime two decades ago. Al-Faroon alleged that al-Amiri was giving Saddam the time to make “political” statements that were irrelevant to the proceedings.

“For instance yesterday, instead of taking legal action (against Saddam), you asked his permission to talk,” al-Faroon said. “The action of the court leans toward the defendants.” Al-Amiri did not directly answer the accusation, but recalled how a successor to the Prophet Muhammad allowed the accused to voice their opinions.

One of the “pillars of the judiciary is to treat everyone equally,” al-Amiri said before ordering that the proceedings resume.

Four witnesses told the court Tuesday of mass graves where the bodies of their relatives were found two decades after they went missing in the regime’s Operation Anfal. One witness recalled his effort to survive a chemical attack allegedly carried out by Saddam’s forces against the Kurdish population. Earlier this week, Saddam accused the Kurdish witnesses of trying to sow ethnic division in Iraq by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during the 1980s crackdown, which the prosecution says claimed up to 180,000 lives.