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1/26/2010 1:47:00 AM
On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:18:41 -0600, Topaz <mars1933@hotmail.com>
wrote:
Muslims Torturing Each Other
Scores of torture victims' bodies dumped in Baghdad
By Sameer Yacoub, AP
Published: 13 September 2006
The bodies of 65 men who had been tortured and then shot have been
dumped around Baghdad. Meanwhile, two car bombs and two mortar attacks
killed at least 32 people and injured dozens of others.
Police said 60 of the bodies were found overnight scattered around
Baghdad, with the majority dumped in predominantly Sunni Arab
neighbourhoods.
All the bodies were bound, bore signs of torture and had been shot,
said police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud.
Such killings are usually the work of death squads, operated by both
Sunni Arabs and Shia gangs and militias, who kidnap people and usually
torture them with power drills or beat them badly before shooting
them.
Of the bodies, 45 were discovered in predominantly Sunni Arab parts of
western Baghdad. The rest were found in predominantly Shia areas of
eastern Baghdad. Another five bodies were found floating down the
Tigris river in Suwayrah, 40 kilometers south of Baghdad, according to
police Lt. Mohammed al-Shimari.
In the capital, a car bomb killed at least 19 people and wounded more
than 62 after it detonated in a large square used mostly as a parking
lot near the main headquarters of Baghdad's traffic police department,
police Cap. Mohammed Abdel-Ghani said. At least two of the dead were
traffic police officers.
In past years, the square was used to test people trying to get their
drivers license.
In eastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded next to a passing Iraqi
police patrol in the Zayona neighborhood, killing eight people and
wounding 17, police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said. At least 3 of the dead
and 7 of the wounded were police officers.
Two mortar shells landed on al-Rashad police station in southeastern
Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding two others, said police
1st Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun.
Another two policemen were killed when two mortar rounds landed near
their station in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Mashtal, police
Maj. Maher Hamid Mousa said. Three others were injured.
In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 65 kilometers (40
miles) west of Baghdad, two pedestrians were killed and two others
injured, apparently in a corssfire, when US troops exchanged fire with
unidentified gunmen in the city's main market, police Lt. Mohamed Sami
said.
Three mortar shells also landed in downtown Baghdad, wounding four
civilians, said police 1st Lt. Thayer Mohammed.
The attacks came one day after attacks claimed the lives of at least
two dozen people across Iraq.
Baghdad has been the focus of most violence and thousands of US and
Iraqi forces are taking part in a security crackdown aimed to curtail
some of the killing. According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, an
average of 51 people a day died violently last month in the capital.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers squabbled over a resolution demanding a
timetable for a US troop withdrawal, and others failed to resolve a
deadlock over a Shia-sponsored bill that Sunni Arabs fear will carve
up the country.
A group of lawmakers tried to take advantage Tuesday of the
unpopularity of US troops among many Shia and Sunni legislators to
seek approval of a resolution setting a timetable for the withdrawal
of all foreign troops ? which the mainstream Shia-dominated government
has so far refused to do.
Sponsored by supporters of radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and
some Sunni Arabs, the resolution managed to gather 104 signatures in
the 275-member parliament before was effectively shelved by being sent
to a committee for review.
That committee will need at least six months to examine the resolution
and present its findings to parliament. If and when approved, such a
resolution would be binding on the government.
No headway was made on parliament's most contentious issue since it
reconvened last week from summer recess: legislation that will set in
place the mechanism for establishing autonomous regions as part of a
federal Iraq.
Sunni Arabs have said the bill could split the country into three
distinct sectarian and ethnic cantons and have vehemently opposed it.
Although federalism is part Iraq's new constitution, and there is
already an autonomous Kurdish region in the north, special legislation
and a referendum would be needed to turn Iraq into a full federation.
Parliament's biggest political bloc, the Shia United Iraqi Alliance
submitted the bill last week. It would be the first step in creating a
separate autonomous state in the predominantly Shia south much like
the zone run by Kurds in the north.
Objections from Sunni Arabs and an apparent split among Shias led
leaders to delay the debate until 19 September.
The bodies of 65 men who had been tortured and then shot have been
dumped around Baghdad. Meanwhile, two car bombs and two mortar attacks
killed at least 32 people and injured dozens of others.
Police said 60 of the bodies were found overnight scattered around
Baghdad, with the majority dumped in predominantly Sunni Arab
neighbourhoods.
All the bodies were bound, bore signs of torture and had been shot,
said police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud.
Such killings are usually the work of death squads, operated by both
Sunni Arabs and Shia gangs and militias, who kidnap people and usually
torture them with power drills or beat them badly before shooting
them.
Of the bodies, 45 were discovered in predominantly Sunni Arab parts of
western Baghdad. The rest were found in predominantly Shia areas of
eastern Baghdad. Another five bodies were found floating down the
Tigris river in Suwayrah, 40 kilometers south of Baghdad, according to
police Lt. Mohammed al-Shimari.
In the capital, a car bomb killed at least 19 people and wounded more
than 62 after it detonated in a large square used mostly as a parking
lot near the main headquarters of Baghdad's traffic police department,
police Cap. Mohammed Abdel-Ghani said. At least two of the dead were
traffic police officers.
In past years, the square was used to test people trying to get their
drivers license.
In eastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded next to a passing Iraqi
police patrol in the Zayona neighborhood, killing eight people and
wounding 17, police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said. At least 3 of the dead
and 7 of the wounded were police officers.
Two mortar shells landed on al-Rashad police station in southeastern
Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding two others, said police
1st Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun.
Another two policemen were killed when two mortar rounds landed near
their station in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Mashtal, police
Maj. Maher Hamid Mousa said. Three others were injured.
In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 65 kilometers (40
miles) west of Baghdad, two pedestrians were killed and two others
injured, apparently in a corssfire, when US troops exchanged fire with
unidentified gunmen in the city's main market, police Lt. Mohamed Sami
said.
Three mortar shells also landed in downtown Baghdad, wounding four
civilians, said police 1st Lt. Thayer Mohammed.
The attacks came one day after attacks claimed the lives of at least
two dozen people across Iraq.
Baghdad has been the focus of most violence and thousands of US and
Iraqi forces are taking part in a security crackdown aimed to curtail
some of the killing. According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, an
average of 51 people a day died violently last month in the capital.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers squabbled over a resolution demanding a
timetable for a US troop withdrawal, and others failed to resolve a
deadlock over a Shia-sponsored bill that Sunni Arabs fear will carve
up the country.
A group of lawmakers tried to take advantage Tuesday of the
unpopularity of US troops among many Shia and Sunni legislators to
seek approval of a resolution setting a timetable for the withdrawal
of all foreign troops ? which the mainstream Shia-dominated government
has so far refused to do.
Sponsored by supporters of radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and
some Sunni Arabs, the resolution managed to gather 104 signatures in
the 275-member parliament before was effectively shelved by being sent
to a committee for review.
That committee will need at least six months to examine the resolution
and present its findings to parliament. If and when approved, such a
resolution would be binding on the government.
No headway was made on parliament's most contentious issue since it
reconvened last week from summer recess: legislation that will set in
place the mechanism for establishing autonomous regions as part of a
federal Iraq.
Sunni Arabs have said the bill could split the country into three
distinct sectarian and ethnic cantons and have vehemently opposed it.
Although federalism is part Iraq's new constitution, and there is
already an autonomous Kurdish region in the north, special legislation
and a referendum would be needed to turn Iraq into a full federation.
Parliament's biggest political bloc, the Shia United Iraqi Alliance
submitted the bill last week. It would be the first step in creating a
separate autonomous state in the predominantly Shia south much like
the zone run by Kurds in the north.
Objections from Sunni Arabs and an apparent split among Shias led
leaders to delay the debate until 19 September.