Prices are soaring, tempting other professionals to partake their roaring success, they say.

The escalating violence that has gripped the country since the 2003 U.S-led invasion shows no signs of abating.

In the absence of accurate and reliable counts, it is difficult to give exact casualty figures.

But if the anecdotal evidence of Baghdad’s grave diggers is taken seriously, no day passes without scores corpses being dumped at the city’s cemeteries.

“We have seen nothing like this. Mutilated bodies beyond recognition, bodies shot in the head with hands still cuffed.

“I have been in this profession for most part of my life. But what I see now scares me to death,” said Haj Abu Muhanad, 66.

But in the meantime business has never been so profitable for Muhanad and his colleagues.

“Business is flourishing. One day they (he refused to identify) brought to the cemetery 30 corpses in one car. Sometimes it occurs to me that one day there will be no more Iraqis left to walk the streets of Baghdad,” he said.

Muhanad said he rarely buries people who had died of natural causes.

“Most of the bodies brought to us are either killed by explosions or firearms.”

Relatives of the dead, if they are present, “are normally very generous,” he said.

Burying a corpse now costs up to 100,000 dinars (approx. $75) while under normal circumstances a grave digger would charge about 10,000 dinars.

The flow of dead bodies to the cemeteries in Baghdad and the one in Najaf, where Muslim Shiites usually bury their dead, is very restricted now and grave diggers say they may pile several corpses in one grave.

“The great number of dead bodies we receive is forcing us to bury them (corpses) over each other. Occasionally we may come across another corpse as we are trying to make room for the new arrivals,” said Abu Omar.

For this reason the diggers no longer have the bodies buried at least 3 meters under ground as has been the tradition so far.

“We also do not have time to dig as deep when you have so many dead bodies around every day,” he added.

But the new burying practices are contrary to Islamic tradition, according to Haja Umm Mohammed, the female grave digger who handles dead women.

Umm Mohammed is charged with washing female dead bodies in line with Islamic practices.

She says she had seen dogs excavating shallow graves and unearthing the bodies.

Omar agreed and said he himself had to rebury corpses dug up by wild dogs.

Prices of coffins have soared due to high demand in which many of Baghdad carpenters are cashing in today.

Nonetheless, Haj Khalil Muhsen says, demand is still higher than supply.

“For example now I make an average of 20 coffins a day and have to send customers away. I now employ five workers and intend to have many more. Previously mine was a one-man carpentry,” Muhsen said.

“For this reason many of Baghdad’s carpenters who previously looked down on our profession have turned to coffin-making which has indeed become very profitable,” he said.