BAGHDAD, Sept. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi police have discovered 18 bodies shot dead in execution style in th south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said on Saturday.

    "A group of militants wearing national guard uniform kidnapped 19 people late on Thursday from their houses in Iskandriyah town, some 40 km south of Baghdad, and took them to an isolated open land," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Then the people were shot dead by the militants, but one of themmanaged to run away to tell the police, who searched the area on Friday to find the 18 bodies, the source said.

    During the search, a group of armed men opened fire at the police force, killing two of them and wounding nine others, he added.

    Tensions have flared up between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslims,as the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars blamed the Iraqi Shiite-dominated security forces for killing detainees on sectarian motives. Enditem