Widespread attacks kill 14 in Iraq (AP) Updated: 2006-02-16 21:07
Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that a
police death squad has been operating in the country, a top official said
Thursday. Attacks around the country killed 14 people, including six Iraqis in a
car bombing and three sheiks in a drive-by shooting.
Iraqi woman walks past the wreckage following
a car bomb explosion in Baghdad, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006. Attacks around
the country killed 14 people, including six Iraqis in a car bombing and
three sheiks in a drive-by shooting. [AP] |
Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari also condemned the latest images of
detainees abused in the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in 2003, but noted that those
responsible had already been punished.
The investigation into the death squads was announced as police found the
bodies of 10 more men who had been shot execution-style and dumped in three
different areas of Baghdad's predominantly Shiite suburb of Shula.
Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister in charge of
domestic intelligence, said the investigation followed U.S. military claims that
soldiers had detained 22 Iraqi men wearing police uniforms who were about to
kill a Sunni Arab man last month.
"We have been informed about this and the interior minister has formed an
investigation committee to learn more about the Sunni person and those 22 men,
particularly whether they work for the Interior Ministry or claim to belong to
the ministry," Kamal told The Associated Press.
A U.S. general said American forces had found evidence of a death squad
operating in Iraq's Interior Ministry, the Chicago Tribune reported on its Web
site Wednesday evening. Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, who commands the civilian
police training teams in Iraq, said the men were employed by the Interior
Ministry as highway patrol officers.
An American military official in Baghdad confirmed the report but declined to
provide further details. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was
unauthorized to speak to the media.
The bodies of Sunni Arabs, bound and gagged and shot in the head, have been
turning up in Baghdad for months, fueling allegations of sectarian killings,
which Sunni Arab leaders say are often carried out by Shiites in army or police
uniforms.
Shiites have also been systematically massacred by Sunni extremists in
Baghdad, Diyala province and mixed areas to the south of the capital.
Human Rights Minister Nermine Othman said she believed lower-level Interior
Ministry officials were using criminals to kill Iraqis.
"I think there are many people inside the Interior Ministry involved with
these deaths or giving the uniforms of colleagues to criminals," she said.
"These officials are helping the criminals by informing them on where targeted
people are going or where people are living. They are helping them in different
ways."
A Sunni Arab political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, praised the
investigation and said perpetrators should be brought to justice.
"Since a very long time, we have been talking about such violations and we
have been telling the Interior Ministry officials that there are squads that
raid houses and arrest people who are found later executed in different parts of
the capital," said party member Nasser al-Ani.
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