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Iraq pulls 700 police linked to death squads
Arizona Daily Star/AP
October 5, 2006

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities pulled a brigade of 700 policemen out of service Wednesday in its biggest move ever to uproot troops linked to death squads, aiming to signal the government's seriousness in cleansing Baghdad of sectarian violence.

The government move came amid steadily mounting violence, particularly in the capital. A U.S. military spokesman said the past week had seen the most car bombs and roadside bombs in Baghdad this year.

Four U.S. soldiers patrolling in Baghdad were killed by gunmen on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, also announcing the deaths of two other soldiers a day earlier in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk. The deaths brought to 21 the number of Americans killed in combat since Saturday.

The suspension of the police brigade was the first time the Iraqi government has taken such dramatic action to discipline security forces over possible links to militiamen, though some individual soldiers have been investigated in the past. Baghdad's Sunnis widely fear the Shiite-led police, saying they are infiltrated by militias and accusing them of cooperating with death squads who snatch Sunnis and kill them.

The brigade was responsible for a region of northeast Baghdad with a slight Shiite majority, where gunmen on Sunday kidnapped 24 workers from a frozen-food factory. Hours later, the bodies of seven of the workers were found dumped in a district miles away.

Sunni politicians have said all those who were kidnapped were Sunnis. They blamed Shiite militias for the abduction and accused police of allowing the gunmen to escape and move freely with their captives.

The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said the police brigade in the area had been ordered to stand down and was undergoing retraining.

He said some officers were being investigated and that any found to have militia ties would be removed.

"The debacle in Iraq"

Gen. James L. Jones, once the Marine Corps' top general, did not deny comments on the Iraq mission and on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that were reported in a new book.

In Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial," Jones is quoted as telling Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a 2005 meeting, "You're going to face a debacle and be part of the debacle in Iraq." Jones also warned Pace that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been "systematically emasculated by Rumsfeld," according to the book.

Jones confirmed that he expressed to Pace that the "strategic consequences of failure" in Iraq are "very serious."

When asked about his comment that Rumsfeld had "emasculated" the service chiefs, Jones would not confirm he used that term but said he did say the law should be changed to empower those in uniform.

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