A collection of 2,000-2,500 mounds small mounds and about a dozen unmarked concrete tombs are spread over an area of about two hectares (five acres).

Dr. Kamal Kerkuki, an official with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, has "no doubt" that he is standing in front of the first mass grave to be discovered since the regime of President Saddam Hussein was toppled nine days ago.

He believes the earth bears victims of Saddam's anti-Kurdish campaigns in 1988 and 1989.

A US officer inspecting the site is more skeptical.

"It is a little bit premature. We confirm that there appears to be graves," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In the course of 12 minutes, one witness said he personally assisted in the secret burial of dozens of civilians in 1988, while another said he buried Iraqi soldiers killed in the first Gulf war in 1991 and Iraq's war with Iran from 1980 to 1988, but he was not sure whether he did this in 1991 or 1992.

Amid clouded memories and a desire to avenge past crimes, there are few certainties.

The burial site is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) on the road toward Saddam's former powerbase of Tikrit in the heart of an industrial zone and right behind a military camp accessed by a bumpy road.

The road to the camp is littered with burnt tanks and destroyed military vehicles, a reminder of the punishing US air strikes unleashed on the Iraqi regime since the start of the war on March 20.

People in the area say no one had access to the site.

US soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Division have put the preliminary count of the graves in the area at 2,156.

On a hill a few hundred meters (yards) away is one of the homes of former Baath regime leader Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed by the Kurds "Chemical Ali" for masterminding the gas attacks on Kurds in the village of Halabja in 1988.

Kurds, who live mostly in northern Iraq, estimate that about 180,000 people were killed and 4,500 villages destroyed during Saddam's Kurdish purge. Kirkuk has particularly suffered from the regime's forced Arabization drive.

Eyewitnesses said US soldiers dug up the remains of a woman in civilian clothes from one of the graves, which might exclude the possibility that this is a military burial ground.

This discovery, the secrecy that shrouds the place and the nearby shadow of Chemical Ali have convinced Kurds that they have found the remains of their fallen brothers and sisters. Even US soldiers have little doubt about the nature of what they have witnessed, whispering "it's very sad."

Mohamed Reza Hussein, a 56-year-old farmer, remembers seeing trenches being dug here in 1988 or 1989 into which the stinking contents of wooden boxes were emptied.

He says he's sure they were human remains, and that he and about 20 others were the ones that covered up the trenches.

"I was afraid that they would kill me if I spoke," he said.

A little bit later Nader Kader arrives. He says that he drove a bulldozer in 1991 or 1992 around here.

"I dug trenches and we put coffins of soldiers in, I do not know if they were Iraqi or Iranian. In any event, there are dates and numbers inside each coffin," he said.

As for the concrete tombs, he said they belong to neighboring villagers.

"We agree that these seem to be graves. We don't know who and why they are here," said a US officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Unlike the Balkans, they're spaced in lines, they're buried according to the Islamic tradition, would you do that to people you were eradicating?"

He believes an investiagtion of the site will be carried out.

"We report it up and we leave it up to the powers to make the decision," he said.

But the Kurdish official Kamal Kerkuki already sees a memorial in the making.

"Like in the concentration camps," he said. "To tell the people who were against the war to come see this."

SPACE.WIRE