Distraught Iraqis are continuing to search for the remains of loved ones in a mass grave as human rights groups denounced coalition forces for failing to protect the site.

The grave just outside the small village of al-Mahawil, located near the city of Hilla about 56 miles (90 km) south of Baghdad, is thought to be one of the largest discovered since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government.

Local volunteers say the remains of up to 3,000 people had been found so far, but estimates suggest there could be as many as 15,000 buried at the site.

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The remains are thought to include the bodies of political prisoners killed after a Shia Muslim uprising against Saddam in 1991, and volunteers have reported uncovering the bodies of women and children as young as 10.

Some seem to have been buried alive, according to the Associated Press news agency.
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Some Iraqis have identified relatives on evidence as flimsy as the discovery of a brand of cigarette their family member was known to smoke, such was the zeal to find their loved ones.

One young man told Reuters news agency he was sure he had found the remains of his brother because he recognised the shirt he always used to wear.

BBC correspondents say the stench at the site is unbearable and a group of US marines who visited said it was like looking into hell.

One man, who lived in a field near the site, told the BBC that he remembered the events of 1991.

"I saw trucks going to the field [and] heard shooting, I knew they were killing people, but not how many," he told the BBC.

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