Human Rights Watch has reported that Iraqi homosexuals are being rounded up and killed by local militia.

The systematic campaign has spread from Baghdad to many other cities, where the bodies of gay men have been found, dumped in garbage or hung as warnings on the street.

The abuses were uncovered when the bodies of several men were initially found in a Shia district of Baghdad earlier this year with the Arabic word for pervert written on their chests.

Human Rights Watch believes the killings amount to so-called social cleansing and has warned the phenomenon poses a new threat to Iraqi security, proving authorities are unable to do nothing to stop the killings.

Other bodies have now been found in Sadr City, Kirkuk, Najaf and Basra.

The campaign has been largely blamed on Shi'ite extremists who have long targeted behaviour deemed un-Islamic.

In the past they have beaten and killed women for not wearing veils and have destroyed liquor stores.