BAGHDAD - The red-and-white identification card was faded. But the name was legible and the picture of the man with the necktie and tidy mustache was clear.
Aboud Awad, who worked in a medicine storage facility in Ramadi, was last seen alive by his wife and children when he went off swimming in nearby Lake Tharthar, once Saddam Hussein’s favorite fishing spot and more recently part of an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold west of Baghdad.
Awad’s remains were discovered last week in a mass grave along with more than 20 other bodies near the manmade lake surrounded by rugged and sun-bleached scrubland.
More than 150 bodies have been unearthed in recent months from mass graves around Lake Tharthar. It’s seen as the grisly legacy of al-Qaida control of Iraq’s western deserts until being ousted early this year in an uprising by local tribes. The revolt was spurred — at least in part — by their claims of extremist brutalities.
Each mass grave uncovered around Tharthar and elsewhere in Iraq — so far at least 12 burial sites — appears to offer more evidence of the fate of Iraqis who challenged al-Qaida and its backers.
Al-Qaida is not alone in being accused of atrocities following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Shiite death squads and others have taken thousands of lives in Iraq’s sectarian meltdown.
But the mass graves now turning up in former al-Qaida territory help explain the decision by Sunni tribal leaders to fight back. U.S. and Iraqi commanders say the groundswell helped drive al-Qaida from the belts around Baghdad and forced extremists to hunt for new havens in northern Iraq.
Awad’s Health Ministry ID card, which expired April 1, was a rare solid lead to confirm the name of a body found in a mass grave.
His relatives recognized pieces of his clothing, a hospital official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. It was unclear when Awad died, but experts said it appeared to be less than a year ago — suggesting he was killed early in 2007.
Of the 23 sets of remains in the grave, authorities were able to identify only Awad and two others. That’s typical in Iraq, where officials usually lack such forensics aids as DNA and dental records.
In the vast majority of missing person cases in Iraq, families are left guessing forever about what happened.
Whenever she hears that a mass grave has been found, Madiha al-Ani, a 75-year-old resident of Fallujah, dispatches relatives to the hospital to search for signs of her son who vanished en route home from Baghdad in February 2006. She always hopes they will come back empty-handed so she can maintain the belief that he’s alive.
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