The decomposing bodies of six women and two men were found in a suspected brothel in eastern Baghdad, Iraqi police sources said Sunday.
At the height of Iraq's sectarian war in 2006/07, militias frequently killed people deemed to be violating Islamic law, often targeting suspected brothels and liquor stores.
The corpses were found in Zayouna district, a mixed Sunni-Shi'ite neighbourhood of eastern Baghdad, Saturday.
The bodies of six naked women were found in one room, and two men in another, the source said, adding that police were alerted by neighbours who had complained about the smell coming from the building.
The cause of death was not immediately clear due to the advance stages of decomposition, the sources said.
Islamist militias filled the vacuum created by Iraq's security chaos in the years following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, imposing their own interpretation of Islamic law in Baghdad, a city known at times under the secular rule of Saddam Hussein for its nightlife and liberal culture.
Such killings have become less frequent as overall security improves and the role of militias, many linked to political parties, has decreased.
