SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AFP) -- The bodies of six oil tanker drivers, five of them Iranian, were found dumped in Iraq on Sunday, one day after they were ambushed, an Iraqi border guard official said.

Iraqi troops picked up the bodies near the town of Khanaqin in the increasingly dangerous province of Diyala not far from the Iranian border, said border guard Brigadier General Nadhem Mohammed Sharif.

Insurgents ambushed the drivers on Saturday as they were importing oil into Iraq from neighboring Iran, Sharif said.

He said Iraqi authorities had tried to hand the bodies of the five Iranians over to the Iranian authorities at the Al-Mundhiryah border crossing point but were instead told to contact Iran's Embassy.

The sixth corpse belonged to an Iraqi driver, Sharif said.