Baghdad ( CNN ) -- Security forces in northern Iraq found a mass grave containing scores of people killed during the height of sectarian violence last decade , police told CNN on Saturday . At least 153 bodies were discovered in Buhriz , just south of Baquba in Diyala province -- a region north and east of Baghdad that endured waves of violence during the Iraqi war . Baquba police Lt. Col. Ghalib Atiya al-Jabouri said the victims included civilians , police and soldiers slain during the height of sectarian violence between 2005 and 2008 . Iraq had been engulfed by fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims . Buhriz , he said , had been controlled by al Qaeda in Iraq between 2006 and 2008 . Some victims were blindfolded and others had their hands tied behind their backs , signs of al Qaeda in Iraq activity . The Iraqi Red Crescent has registered thousands of missing persons in Iraq since just after the war started .
At least 153 corpses were found . The bodies of the victims had been dumped in a mass grave at an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town. The killings occurred during sectarian strife .