SAMAWA/ ISTANBUL: A mass grave was uncovered in southern Iraq containing as many as 1,500 corpses, most of them thought to be Kurds forcibly removed from their homes in the late 1980s, and separately Iraq's neighbors threw their support behind the new government in Baghdad pledging to increase security cooperation with the conflict-torn country.

The site, near the town of Samawa, about 180 miles south of Baghdad, consists of 18 shallow trenches dug by earth-moving vehicles into hard limestone rock.

According to a US investigator, most of the victims were women and children who were apparently lined up in front of the pits and shot with AK-47 assault rifles.

Some 110 bodies have been excavated from the site so far, nearly two thirds of them children and teenagers.

They are being forensically examined and evidence gathered will be used to build cases against Saddam and his top deputies for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

It is one of more than 300 mass graves that have been discovered around Iraq since Saddam was overthrown. Some contain as few as a dozen bodies, while others, including one near the southern city of Basra, contain several thousand.

27 grave sites have been found in the area around Samawa.

Meanwhile, a leading prayer leader from the holy city of Najaf Sheikh Sadreddin Kubbanji delivered his sermon in front of thousands of worshippers at the main weekly prayers at the Husseiniya Fatimia mosque, calling on the new cabinet to “firmly oppose terrorism and reactivate de-Baathification commissions.”

“Execute Saddam and his agents, this is the greatest gift you can make to the Iraqi people,” said Kubbanji who is a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.