TIKRIT, Iraq, Jan. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. and Iraqi troops began searching for 50 police recruits kidnapped north of Baghdad earlier this week, a source from the Iraqi-US liaison office in Tikrit told Xinhua on Thursday.

    Fifty police recruits were kidnapped by unknown gunmen on Monday in an area north of Baghdad as they were travelling from Baghdad to Samarra in the south, the source said.

    "Dozens of armed men, wearing police and Iraqi army uniform,manned mobile checkpoints and kidnapped 50 police recruits north of Meshahadah town," the source said.

    Meanwhile, the Iraqi army and police found early Thursday about 30 bodies in an open area north of Meshahadah town, some 40 km north of Baghdad, he said.

    "Most bodies belong to the Iraqi army and police, including two officers, and some were government employees," he said."The search is going on for more bodies and fears have been raised that the 50 kidnapped police recruits may also be killed,"he added.

    He said all the victims had their hands tied to their backs and were shot in the head.

    The area north of Baghdad witnessed the crash of an AH-64 Apache on Monday. The U.S. troops cordoned off the area afterwards,preventing people from approaching the scene near the main road north of Baghdad.

    Many people have been abducted or killed by unknown gunmen in checkpoints in the fields around the main road between Baghdad and Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad.

    The US forces frequently block parts of the main road, forcing civilian vehicles to use by-pass roads in the surrounding fields and deserts.

    The source said 15 civilians were also kidnapped in the same area after the gunmen killed two of them. Enditem