A total of 53 corpses in execution style were discovered in Baghdad and its outskirts, a police official told Xinhua on Thursday.

"We have discovered 47 bodies last night in Baghdad and six others on Thursday morning in Abu Dshier in southern capital," Captain Ahmed Abdullah said.

"Most of these bodies were abducted from Sunni mosques in Baghdad during a wave of sectarian reprisal attacks following the Wednesday's bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra," Abdullah said.

The bodies were blindfolded, bound, civilian dressed and were shot with bullets in the back of their heads, he added.

Three journalists working for Al-Arabiya television were found shot dead after being attacked while filming in Samarra, where the bloodless but highly symbolic bombing of the Golden Mosque at dawn on Wednesday provoked widespread protest.

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of the Shi'ites took to the streets in Baghdad, Samarra, Najaf and Karbala and other Iraqi cities, vowing to avenge those responsible for the damage of the most celebrated Shi'ite shrine.

Unknown gunmen wearing police commando uniform attacked early on Wednesday the holy shrine of Ali al-Hadi in Samarra.

The shrine of Ali al-Hadi, or the al-Hadhrah al-Askariyah, contains tombs of Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 AD, and his son Hassan al-Askari who died in 874 AD. The two are the 10th and 11th of the Shiite's twelve most revered Imams. Shi'ite pilgrims visited the shrine from all over the world.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2006)