Bombings place unique burden on Iraq's 1st DNA lab

Identifying bodies found at blast sites is a noble but difficult task

BAGHDAD -- The Baghdad morgue DNA unit's latest enigmas arrived last week in plastic bags.

There was a hand, a right arm and a headless torso with blood-soaked shreds of an Iraqi army uniform -- the first body parts recovered after deadly bombings last Sunday that hospital officials had been unable to identify.

"With big bombings, when you have 100 dead, maybe 20 bodies will be beyond recognition," said physician Taha Qasim, head of forensics at the morgue, as he surveyed the human remains neatly laid out on black stretchers in the facility's mortuary. "Those come here."

Physicians at the year-old DNA lab, the first in Iraq, have begun using science to solve new and old mysteries in a country where war and sectarian conflict have created legions of them.

Since they began processing samples regularly, morgue officials said, they have collected nearly 4,000 from unidentified bodies and relatives of people missing after explosions. Those have yielded dozens of matches, they said.

The officials said they intend to open two more labs in coming years that would work exclusively on mass grave cases -- a project with the potential to provide information to thousands of families and shine a light on some of the darkest chapters of Iraq's bloody history.

The lab has also been asked to help out in court cases, introducing scientific evidence into a justice system that until now has relied almost exclusively on confessions and uncorroborated accusations.

"Because of sanctions and bans, we have been obstructed from using this technology," said Munjid Salahadin, the morgue's director.

The central Baghdad morgue was built in the 1930s by the British. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, it was run, until relatively recently, by Shiite militias. During 2006 and 2007, the peak years of sectarian fighting between Sunnis and Shiites, scores of bodies were delivered there daily. Many had been decapitated. Others were burned or tortured beyond recognition. The intensity of sectarian hatred at the time made it nearly impossible for Sunni families to visit the morgue. Thousands were buried in unmarked graves, and morgue officials could do little other than photograph corpses and try to keep track of burial places.

"In 2006, we received 100, 150 bodies each day," Qasim said as he made his way from the mortuary to the DNA lab.

The crush of cases at the time kept the morgue's refrigerators packed. Forensic experts were able to perform only perfunctory autopsies. Qasim developed an ulcer.

"We're dealing with people losing loved ones," he said. "You must not deal with these cases in an ordinary way."