MADRID - International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge on Monday condemned that the murder of 13 members of the Iraqi taekwondo team was "abhorrent".

He said in a Monday statement: "It is intolerable that athletes become targets in these horrible crimes."

A total of 15 members of the Iraqi taekwondo team were kidnapped in May last year in Fallujah, some 50km from Iraq's capital Baghdad, as they were returning from a competition in Jordanian capital Amman.

Their captors demanded a ransom for their release. But on Friday, police found 13 partly decomposed bodies belonging to team members.