Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Death squad activity on the rise despite more troops
Security
(The Observer) - The US military surge in Iraq, designed to turn around the course of the war, appears to be failing as senior US officers admit they need yet more troops and new figures show a sharp increase in the victims of death squads in Baghdad. In the first 11 days of this month, there have already been 234 bodies - men murdered by death squads - dumped around the capital, a dramatic rise from the 137 found in the same period of April.
Improving security in Baghdad and reducing death-squad activity was described as one of the key aims of the US surge of 25,000 additional troops, the final units of whom are due to arrive next month. In a further setback, the US military announced yesterday the loss of an entire patrol south of Baghdad, with five soldiers dead and three others missing, after they were ambushed by insurgents in the town of Mahmoudiya.
The new figures emerged as the commander of US forces in northern Iraq, Major General Benjamin Mixon, admitted he did not have enough soldiers to contain the escalating violence in Diyala province, which neighbours Baghdad and has become the focus of the heaviest fighting between largely Sunni insurgent groups and the US army, which has seen casualties increase by 300 per cent. Sixty-one US soldiers have been killed in Diyala this year, compared with 20 in all of last year.
Mixon, interviewed by The Observer earlier this year, has not made a secret of his frustration at the declining situation in Diyala and has already reinforced the area around Baqouba - the centre of the heaviest fighting - with additional troops. Ironically, the violence in Diyala has been exacerbated by an influx of both Shia and Sunni fighters displaced from Baghdad by the surge and also from Anbar province who have relocated to Diyala to join a series of jihadi and nationalist groups already based there.
Mixon, who was speaking in Tikrit, said: 'I'm going to need additional forces, to get that situation to a more acceptable level, so the Iraqi security forces will be able in the future to handle that.' He was also highly critical of Iraqi government in Baghdad, charging that it was riddled with corruption. Mixon's request coincided with yet more bad news from Iraq - a draft US government report claiming that between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production may have been siphoned off through corruption in the past four years.
Iraqi and American officials have long contended that oil smuggling from fields controlled by Shia militias in the south is costing Iraq billions of dollars - funds that, it is feared, are going to armed groups.
The new figures emerged as the commander of US forces in northern Iraq, Major General Benjamin Mixon, admitted he did not have enough soldiers to contain the escalating violence in Diyala province, which neighbours Baghdad and has become the focus of the heaviest fighting between largely Sunni insurgent groups and the US army, which has seen casualties increase by 300 per cent. Sixty-one US soldiers have been killed in Diyala this year, compared with 20 in all of last year.
Mixon, interviewed by The Observer earlier this year, has not made a secret of his frustration at the declining situation in Diyala and has already reinforced the area around Baqouba - the centre of the heaviest fighting - with additional troops. Ironically, the violence in Diyala has been exacerbated by an influx of both Shia and Sunni fighters displaced from Baghdad by the surge and also from Anbar province who have relocated to Diyala to join a series of jihadi and nationalist groups already based there.
Mixon, who was speaking in Tikrit, said: 'I'm going to need additional forces, to get that situation to a more acceptable level, so the Iraqi security forces will be able in the future to handle that.' He was also highly critical of Iraqi government in Baghdad, charging that it was riddled with corruption. Mixon's request coincided with yet more bad news from Iraq - a draft US government report claiming that between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production may have been siphoned off through corruption in the past four years.
Iraqi and American officials have long contended that oil smuggling from fields controlled by Shia militias in the south is costing Iraq billions of dollars - funds that, it is feared, are going to armed groups.
Labels: death squads, Major General Benjamin Mixon
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Ansar al-Sunnah slaughter Iraqi soldier
Insurgency
(Reuters) - An Iraqi militant group posted a video on Sunday showing an insurgent slitting the throat of a National Guard soldier in what it said was an "execution by slaughtering" for an alleged role in sectarian death squads. "After interrogating him the bureau of law and judiciary of the Ansar al-Sunna group issued a sentence that this apostate be slaughtered to become a lesson," the group said in an on-screen statement before showing the beginning of the killing.
The man, who identified himself as Shawkat Hussein Saleh al-Jubouri, was kneeling on the floor, blindfolded and wearing a uniform. Jubouri answered questions of an off-camera interrogator at gun point. He said he was a member of the National Guard then his interrogator asked if he belonged to "the death squads?", the young man answered: "Death squads...", but he did not finish his sentence when he was interrupted by the militant.
Jubouri then heard the sentence before a militant holding a knife in his right hand grabbed him by the hair and began to slit his throat. The rest of the killing was edited out by the group. Before the killing the militant praised the mujahideen as "wolves", which in Iraq indicates bravery. His remarks in several parts of the video were inaudible.
The man, who identified himself as Shawkat Hussein Saleh al-Jubouri, was kneeling on the floor, blindfolded and wearing a uniform. Jubouri answered questions of an off-camera interrogator at gun point. He said he was a member of the National Guard then his interrogator asked if he belonged to "the death squads?", the young man answered: "Death squads...", but he did not finish his sentence when he was interrupted by the militant.
Jubouri then heard the sentence before a militant holding a knife in his right hand grabbed him by the hair and began to slit his throat. The rest of the killing was edited out by the group. Before the killing the militant praised the mujahideen as "wolves", which in Iraq indicates bravery. His remarks in several parts of the video were inaudible.
Sunni Muslim militants say the country's Shi'ite-led government oversees death squads that seek to kill Sunnis or drive them out of Baghdad in a sectarian cleansing bid, a charge the government denies. Iraqi officials have said that the movement of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr group was infiltrated with what they called "rogue elements" trying to sabotage the political process and were running sectarian death squads. Anasr al-Sunna, a key Sunni Muslim insurgent group, has claimed several abductions and killings since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In March it said it killed an abducted Iraqi brigadier general for taking part in alleged attacks on Sunni Muslims.
COMMENT: Ansar al-Sunnah (Followers of the Tradition) is an Iraqi Jihadist group, dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state based on Shari’ah in Iraq, which they aim to achieve by the defeat of coalition forces and foreign occupation. They believe that jihad in Iraq has become obligatory for Muslims. The group’s membership is varied, and is comprised of operatives from the Kurdish terrorist organization Ansar al-Islam, foreign al-Qaeda operatives, and Iraqi Sunnis. Targets have included coalition military personnel, members of the Iraqi National Guard, new Iraqi governmental institutions, and Kurdish political establishments, which the group sees as puppet regimes of the American occupation. COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: Ansar al-Sunnah, death squads, internet video, Shawkat Hussein Saleh al-Jubouri
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The resurgence of death squads
Security
(AINA) - In a new sign of the resurgence of death squads, both Sunni and Shia, despite an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security operation, several dozen people were found dead across the country Monday. In Baghdad, 25 bodies with signs of torture were found dumped in different areas yesterday, bringing the total over the last three days to 67, the highest number since the start of the U.S.-led Imposing Law security operation. Anecdotal evidence from local sources in Baghdad suggest the numbers are much higher, since many corpses are left on the street for days without being picked up by authorities.
Residents in the Sunni-majority district of Adhamiya reported several bodies in their area, including one in the middle of the commercial Dhubat Street left by insurgents who were described as "Al-Qaeda" by locals. Almost all victims are Sunni, some of them members of rival insurgent groups, local council members, or Islamic Party members and other Sunnis who have participated in the political process, according to residents.
Residents in the Sunni-majority district of Adhamiya reported several bodies in their area, including one in the middle of the commercial Dhubat Street left by insurgents who were described as "Al-Qaeda" by locals. Almost all victims are Sunni, some of them members of rival insurgent groups, local council members, or Islamic Party members and other Sunnis who have participated in the political process, according to residents.
They said anyone who dares even look at the body, let alone touch it or remove it, would risk immediate execution by militants. U.S. and Iraqi forces are just a few hundred meters away at the newly renovated Adhamiya police station, residents said, but they are usually oblivious to what is going on around them behind the concrete blast walls when they are not out on patrol. Similar scenes are described in many parts of western and southern Baghdad.
Labels: Adhamiyah, death squads, sectarian violence
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Saddam's VP buried next to him in Ouja
(AP) Hundreds of chanting mourners buried Saddam Hussein's former vice president near the ousted dictator, his sons and two other executed deputies Tuesday in a spot that has become the graveyard of the ousted regime. Taha Yassin Ramadan's body, which was covered with the Iraqi flag, was interred in a building courtyard in the Tigris River village of Ouja hours after he was hanged for his part in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam.
Police, meanwhile, found the bullet-riddled bodies of 32 men scattered across Baghdad. The corpses showed signs of torture and were the apparent victims of sectarian death squads, most of which are believed to be operated by Shiite militias. That number was below the average of 50 bodies that were turning up daily on the capital's streets before the U.S.-Iraqi security operation started Feb. 14. Militia fighters have been lying low to avoid a confrontation with American troops. The number of execution-style deaths was notable, however, because the toll had fallen as low as seven a day, prompting American and Iraqi officials to express cautious optimism that sectarian violence was ebbing.
Police, meanwhile, found the bullet-riddled bodies of 32 men scattered across Baghdad. The corpses showed signs of torture and were the apparent victims of sectarian death squads, most of which are believed to be operated by Shiite militias. That number was below the average of 50 bodies that were turning up daily on the capital's streets before the U.S.-Iraqi security operation started Feb. 14. Militia fighters have been lying low to avoid a confrontation with American troops. The number of execution-style deaths was notable, however, because the toll had fallen as low as seven a day, prompting American and Iraqi officials to express cautious optimism that sectarian violence was ebbing.
Ramadan, Saddam's vice president at the start of the war, was hanged before dawn in what was once Iraq's military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad. Police in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, said the body was flown to the area by the U.S. military, then driven to Ouja to be buried near the flower-covered graves of co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, who were executed in January. Saddam's sons Odai and Qusai and grandson Mustafa also are buried in the courtyard, and the former dictator's grave is inside the building.
Yahya Ibrahim, a Sunni Arab cleric and member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, said Ramadan had asked in his will to be buried at the site, which has become a focal point for loyalists of the former regime. Ouja, just outside Tikrit and about a 90-minute drive north of Baghdad, is near where Saddam was captured by American soldiers in December 2003.
Yahya Ibrahim, a Sunni Arab cleric and member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, said Ramadan had asked in his will to be buried at the site, which has become a focal point for loyalists of the former regime. Ouja, just outside Tikrit and about a 90-minute drive north of Baghdad, is near where Saddam was captured by American soldiers in December 2003.
Labels: death squads, Ouja, Saddam Hussein, Shia militias, Taha Yassin Ramadan
