BAGHDAD, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Iraqi police found 23 rotting bodies dumped in a mass grave in Iraq's volatile northern Diyala province on Wednesday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

In a separate discovery, Iraq's Rapid Intervention Force said they found the bodies of six recently killed people just southeast of the northern city of Samarra, the commander of the force for Samarra, Captain Muthana Shakir, told Reuters.

The U.S. military statement gave no further details on the 23 bodies, except that they had probably been dead since about 1-1/2 years ago, when tit-for-tat sectarian violence nearly tipped the country into all-out civil war.

"Local Iraqi police will hand over the remains to respective families for proper burial," the statement said.

Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants have been particularly active in northern Iraq, where they have carried out numerous bomb attacks and mass executions. (Reporting by Tim Cocks; additional reporting by Sabah al-Bazee; editing by Tim Pearce)

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