21 bodies buried at Iraq school

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Twenty-one decomposed bodies were found buried at a school under construction in Anbar province, Iraqi authorities said Wednesday, and family members say some of the victims were kidnapped two years ago.

The bodies were found in the Adala neighborhood of central Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Laborers working at the construction site found the corpses, which Iraqi security forces transferred to a morgue.

Family members have identified some of the bodies, the official said.

Largely Sunni Anbar province was once dominated by insurgents, including members of al Qaeda in Iraq. But in the past two years, an anti-al Qaeda tribal movement called "the awakening" has managed to reduce their numbers in the province's Euphrates River valley area.

U.S.-backed groups called Awakening Councils have spread across Iraq.

Also on Wednesday, a soldier with the U.S.-led coalition was killed in an explosion in Salaheddin province in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said. Two other coalition soldiers were wounded.