Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Evidence of Death Squads Mount in Iraq
Wow, I wish I was surprised, but I'm not.Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings
By Dexter Filkins
The New York Times
Tuesday 29 November 2005
Baghdad - As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.
Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.
Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.
Some of the young men have turned up alive in prison. In a secret bunker discovered earlier this month in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, American and Iraqi officials acknowledged that some of the mostly Sunni inmates appeared to have been tortured.
Bayan Jabr, the interior minister, and other government officials denied any government involvement, saying the killings were carried out by men driving stolen police cars and wearing police and army uniforms purchased at local markets. "Impossible! Impossible!" Mr. Jabr said. "That is totally wrong; it's only rumors; it is nonsense."
Many of the claims of killings and abductions have been substantiated by at least one human rights organization working here - which asked not to be identified because of safety concerns - and documented by Sunni leaders working in their communities.
American officials, who are overseeing the training of the Iraqi Army and the police, acknowledge that police officers and Iraqi soldiers, and the militias with which they are associated, may indeed be carrying out killings and abductions in Sunni communities, without direct American knowledge.
But they also say it is difficult, in an already murky guerrilla war, to determine exactly who is responsible. The American officials insisted on anonymity because they were working closely with the Iraqi government and did not want to criticize it publicly.
Read or Post a Comment
Hey, have you seen the tape on the "Crooks and Liars" blog that seems to show independent contractors going around Baghadad shooting innocent civilians? F'ing disgusting!!!
Oops, I read further and saw your post on this "trophy video."
I don't know if I've posted this to you before, If I have sorry, but take a look at this newseek story from Jan 05 which describes DoD internal debates on the formation of the Salvador option.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/
Puts a whole new spin on this story.
Mike