Dead Bodies

The bodies are stacked in a courtyard outside, prayers are said, and relatives collapse to the floor wailing in grief.

Inside the hospital, doctors battle to patch up the walking wounded and save the gravely injured - but stores of medicine and supplies are dwindling by the day.

A BBC Arabic reporter witnessed a facility overwhelmed with casualties where doctors were racing to finish procedures before moving on to the next patient.

A San Antonio Fire Department official said they found "stacks of bodies" and no signs of water in the truck, which was found next to railroad tracks in a remote area on the city's southern outskirts.

Sixteen other people found inside the trailer were transported to hospitals for heat stroke and exhaustion, including four minors, but no children were among the dead, the department said.

The resident of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan is one of thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives as fighting for control of the city rages between militants and government forces.

The BBC is not naming some interviewees in this article for security reasons.

"There are corpses on the roads. We do not know if they are civilians or the Taliban," the man told the BBC Afghan service in an interview on Whatsapp. "Dozens of families have fled their homes and settled near the Helmand river."

The National reported the morgue at Mendi Hospital in Southern Highlands province was raided in the middle of the night last Saturday.

Provincial police commander Martin Lakari said the raiders threatened to kill the mortuary keeper before taking the remains of two women and a man.

The bodies were found in the Mendi River over the New Year period.

Mr Lakari told RNZ Pacific that police suspected they had died from sorcery-related violence because they were not reported missing.

Papuan news outlet Tabloid Jubi reports the bodies were found on Thursday in a village in Nduga regency, where violence has flared since last year.

A youth leader from the regency, Samuel Tabuni, is quoted as saying the victims, two of whom were teenagers, were shot by Indonesia's military.

Military spokesperson, Eko Daryanto, told Tabloid Jubi he had not received a report of the shooting.