57 Iraqi Police Charged With Torture [View All]

[kpete]

57 Iraqi Police Charged With Torture
Nov 7, 7:30 AM (ET)

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that it had brought the first-ever charges of torture against members of the Iraqi police, who are accused of close ties to the Shiite death squads whose daily abductions and killings fuel the sectarian violence convulsing the country.

Authorities reported finding the bodies of a dozen apparent death squad victims floating in the Tigris River south of Baghdad.

Shiite death squads are generally thought to be behind such killings, hundreds of which have been recorded in Baghdad alone since the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in February ignited the explosion of sectarian revenge killings.

Some officers on the Shiite-dominated police force are accused of abetting the violence by allowing the gunmen to violate curfews and pass through checkpoints.

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