Existence confirmed of Iraqi death squad
Nelson Hernandez and Bassam Sebti
Washington Post
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Baghdad (Iraq):
U.S. and Iraqi authorities discovered an apparent death squad operating within the country's Interior Ministry last month when Iraqi troops prevented a group of highway patrol officers from killing a Sunni Arab man the officers had arrested, an American military spokesman said Thursday.
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See Also:
Iraq: Probe into claims of police 'death squad'
Iraq to investigate 'death squad'
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The 22 men, dressed in the camouflage uniforms of special police commandos, were stopped by chance at an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Baghdad, according to Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson.
When the soldiers asked the police what they were doing, they responded bluntly:
They were going to execute their captive. Instead, they wound up in jail.The men's arrest was first reported this month in the New York Times, which also quoted Peterson, who oversees the training of Iraqi police. The incident is the first hard evidence to support the widely held suspicion among Sunni Arabs that vigilantes in the country's Shiite-dominated police force are rounding up Sunnis and killing them.
feb 17, 2006
Nelson Hernandez and Bassam Sebti
Washington Post
___________
Baghdad (Iraq):
U.S. and Iraqi authorities discovered an apparent death squad operating within the country's Interior Ministry last month when Iraqi troops prevented a group of highway patrol officers from killing a Sunni Arab man the officers had arrested, an American military spokesman said Thursday.
_______________
See Also:
Iraq: Probe into claims of police 'death squad'
Iraq to investigate 'death squad'
_______________
The 22 men, dressed in the camouflage uniforms of special police commandos, were stopped by chance at an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Baghdad, according to Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson.
When the soldiers asked the police what they were doing, they responded bluntly:
They were going to execute their captive. Instead, they wound up in jail.The men's arrest was first reported this month in the New York Times, which also quoted Peterson, who oversees the training of Iraqi police. The incident is the first hard evidence to support the widely held suspicion among Sunni Arabs that vigilantes in the country's Shiite-dominated police force are rounding up Sunnis and killing them.
feb 17, 2006
