The remains, including bundles of bone in strips of military uniform, were found in an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of Al Zubayr, it said in a dispatch from chief reporter Vanessa Allen in southern Iraq.

It said it was not known how long the remains had been there, but that they would be investigated by forensic specialists as possible evidence of atrocities carried out by President Saddam Hussein's regime.

Al Zubayr is 20 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Iraq's second city Basra, in an area secured by British troops allied with US forces which invaded the country on March 20.

SPACE.WIRE