The Next Hurrah: Death Squads In Iraq Compound Problems

February 26, 2006

Death Squads In Iraq Compound Problems

by DemFromCT

Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by death squads working from the Ministry of the Interior, the United Nations' outgoing human rights chief in Iraq has revealed.

John Pace, who left Baghdad two weeks ago, told The Independent on Sunday that up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the city's mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes. Much of the killing, he said, was carried out by Shia Muslim groups under the control of the Ministry of the Interior.

This is backdrop to the current 'troubles' that suggest the smoldering civil war is breaking out in fits and starts. It's getting harder and harder for Administration supporters to pretend this is anything but what is evident to anyone with access to the news – a political disaster.

Coupled with the suicide bombings and attacks on Shia holy places carried out by Sunnis, some of whom are followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qa'ida's leader in Iraq, the activities of the death squads are pushing Iraq ever closer to a sectarian civil war.

Mr Pace said the Ministry of the Interior was "acting as a rogue element within the government". It is controlled by the main Shia party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri); the Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, is a former leader of Sciri's Badr Brigade militia, which is one of the main groups accused of carrying out sectarian killings. Another is the Mehdi Army of the young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is part of the Shia coalition seeking to form a government after winning the mid-December election.

Iran and the Iranian-oriented mullahs have very different interests than the Americans. And the Kurds have different interest still.

And there's more...

This was the sort of killing that touched off Lebanon's civil war in 1975. Already an exchange of populations is taking place in Baghdad as members of each community move to districts in which they are in the majority.

The ability of the US occupiers to influence the situation is not only limited, but some of their actions are seen as making things worse. The Americans have been trying to dislodge Mr Jabr as Interior Minister, accusing him of turning his ministry into a Shia bastion. But the Shia believe that the US and its allies, the Kurds, simply want to prevent the majority community from gaining full power over security despite winning two parliamentary elections in 2005.

While we've been talking for a long time about how Iraq is and is not like Vietnam, the more appropriate analogy to Lebanon will be seen more and more frequently. And that is not a good thing.

February 26, 2006 at 00:18 | Permalink

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The Next Hurrah

February 26, 2006

Death Squads In Iraq Compound Problems

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