Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that a police death squad has been operating in Iraq, a top official said yesterday.
The probe was launched as police found the bodies of 10 more men who had been shot dead execution-style and dumped in three different areas of Baghdad's predominantly Shiite suburb of Shula.
Major General Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister in charge of domestic intelligence, said the probe was launched following US military claims that they had detained 22 men wearing police uniforms who were about to kill a Sunni Arab man.
"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 said.
A US general said US forces had found evidence of a death squad operating in Iraq's Interior Ministry, the Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site on Wednesday evening.
A US military official in Baghdad confirmed the report but declined to provide further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
Major General Joseph Peterson, who commands the civilian police training teams in Iraq, said the 22 men were employed by the Ministry of Interior as highway patrol officers.
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.
Human Rights Minister Nermine Othman said she believed lower-level Interior Ministry officials were assisting criminals involved in killing Iraqis.
"I think there are many people inside the Interior Ministry involved with these deaths or giving the uniforms of colleagues to criminals," Othman 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 it should result in perpetrators being 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.
Early yesterday, five handcuffed and blindfolded men, each shot in the head, were found in one location near northern Baghdad's Shula neighborhood, police said.
Four more men aged between 30 years and 35 were found killed in similar circumstances near Shula on the highway to the northern city of Taji, police said.
The body of a young man who seemed to have been shot early yesterday Thursday was dumped near al-Khair river in Shula suburb, police Captain Qassim Hussein said.
Iraq's majority Shiites claimed prominent security services positions when they came to power following the 2003 ouster of former president Saddam Hussein, whose regime suppressed Shiites.
Sunni Arabs, who were once prominent under Saddam, claim Shiites have been killing and kidnapping Sunnis in a campaign of retribution.
Sunni Arabs, however, form the backbone of Iraq's raging insurgency.
Militant leaders like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have called for Shiites to be targeted in a bid to start a civil war.
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