Iraqi police go on killing spree in Tal Afar

Shiite police enraged by deadly truck bombings went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis in a northwestern Iraqi city on Mar. 28, killing as many as 70 men execution-style and prompting fears that sectarian violence was spreading outside the capital. The killings occurred in the mixed Shiite-Sunni city Tal Afar, which had been an insurgent stronghold until an offensive by US and Iraqi troops in September 2005, when militants fled into the countryside without a fight. Police officers and Shiite militiamen went on a rampage in Sunni neighborhoods, military and local officials said. Many of the men–aged between 15 and 60–had been handcuffed and shot in the head, Salih Kaddou, a physician at Tal Afar Hospital, said. "I wish you can come and see all the bodies. They are lying in the grounds. We don't have enough space in the hospital," another doctor at the hospital said. "I've never seen such a thing in my life." Gen. Khourshid al-Douski, the Iraqi army commander in charge of the area, said 70 were shot in the back of the head and 40 people were kidnapped. "Bodies were in the streets and no one could remove them because of the curfew and the police cars which were roaming the streets," said Yashar Abdullah, an official with the Iraqi Turkmen Front, a prominent political party in Tal Afar. The killings went on for two hours as policemen roamed the streets looking for Sunni men to kill. The violence ended only when Iraqi troops were rushed in from Mosul, arresting 18 policemen, security officials said. A lieutenant colonel from the Iraqi army's 3rd Division said the policemen were freed shortly after their detainment for fear of wider violence, as hundreds of people demonstrated demanding their release. Local authorities said that the 18 had since been arrested again, a development that may reflect a power struggle over whether those believed responsible should be brought to justice. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki immediately ordered an investigation into the killings. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told the government-run television channel Iraqiya that the government would "take legal action" against the police officers who had been arrested and accused of involvement in the massacre. In an interview with CNN from Camp Speicher outside Tikrit, Army Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commander Multi-National Forces Iraq-North, confirmed that 18 police officers have been arrested in Ninevah province in connection with the reprisal killings. "Initial indicators were that yes, the Iraqi police were involved," Bednarek told CNN. "They will investigate that fully to ensure that justice is done." The police officers were questioned by Iraqi officials, Bednarek said, "and the governors of Iraq and Iraqi officials have launched a full investigation into this to ensure that those who were responsible are brought to justice by Iraqi law." The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars said the revenge killings were evidence "of the clear plot and coordination between the militias and the government forces of interior and defense." The Iraqi Accordance Front, the biggest Sunni parliamentary group, said the killings proved the need for an overhaul of Iraq's Shiite-dominated system. "If [the] attacks were carried out by unidentified terrorists, [the] events were conducted by well-known criminal policemen and they must be punished," Sunni lawmaker Dhafer al-Ani said. "The whole situation in Iraq needs to be reconsidered and a quick solution is needed to the political process." The revenge killings in the religiously mixed city 260 miles northwest of Baghdad were triggered by truck bombings the day before that killed at least 85 people and wounded nearly 200. One of the trucks exploded after the driver lured people in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood to the site by telling them he was distributing free flour from a humanitarian organization. The bombing caused surrounding buildings to collapse, leaving huge piles of concrete and bricks dusted with white flour. Videotaped footage from the scene showed a man dead in the front seat of his car. Men and women carried the limp bodies of children powdered with flour. Others dug through the rubble with their bare hands in a search for survivors. A few moments later a second truck loaded with vegetables exploded in the nearby central market. Sunni insurgents reportedly waited in ambush on the outskirts of the city intending to ambush the ambulances carrying the wounded to hospitals in Mosul. They were driven off by gunfire. The Iraqi government later raised its estimate of the death toll from the bombings to 152. To the US military, Tal Afar has long been considered a success story, a city where the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment–then led by Col. H.R. McMaster, now a top adviser to the US commanding general in Iraq–quelled a violent insurgency in 2005. But the US military rotated that unit out and deployed a smaller one to replace it. More recently, many trained Sunni policemen in the city were dismissed, and hundreds of untrained Shiites were hired to replace them. The city has suffered frequent insurgent attacks, despite sand barriers erected around it by US and Iraqi forces. The situation had been calmer in recent months and some displaced Shiite and Sunni families had started to return to their homes. Tal Afar had as many as 200,000 residents several years ago, although US military officials say the population has declined to 80,000. Most residents are ethnic Turkmen, about 70 percent of them Sunni and 25 percent Shiite. In March 2006, President Bush hailed Tal Afar as a "free city that gives reason for hope in a free Iraq" after the US operation there. He cited the operation as an example that gave him "confidence in our strategy."