10 men found slain in Iraq

The bodies of 10 young men were found east of Iraq's capital Baghdad Thursday, an interior ministry source said.

Iraqi police found the bodies of the men, aged between 18 and 25 and slain execution-style, in al-Ma'amel area, a predominantly Shiite area and a former stronghold of Shiite militiamen, Xinhua reported quoting a source.

The bodies were blindfolded and handcuffed with bullet holes in the heads, the source said.

In a separate incident, seven people were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Abu Ghraib area, some 25 km west of Baghdad, the source added.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in five years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back towards the full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.