Editing Death squad (section)

==== Iraq ====
{{Main|Extrajudicial killings in Iraq|Iraqi conflict (2003–present)}}
Iraq was formed by the [[British Empire]] from three provinces of the [[Ottoman Empire]] following the [[Partition of the Ottoman Empire|empire's breakup]] after [[World War I]]. Its population is overwhelmingly [[Islam in Iraq|Muslim]] but is divided into [[Shia Islam|Shiites]] and [[Sunni Islam|Sunnis]], with a [[Kurds in Iraq|Kurdish minority]] in the north. The new state leadership in the capital of [[Baghdad]] was formerly composed of, for the most part, the old [[Sunni]] [[Arab]] elite.

After [[Saddam Hussein]] was overthrown by the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|US-led invasion of Iraq]] in 2003, the secular socialist [[Baathist]] leadership were replaced with a provisional and later constitutional government that included leadership roles for the Shia and Kurds. This paralleled the development of ethnic militias by the Shia, Sunni, and the Kurdish [[Peshmerga]].

During the course of the [[Iraq War]] the country has increasingly become divided into three zones: a [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] ethnic zone to the north, a Sunni center and the [[Shia]] ethnic zone to the south.

While all three groups have operated death squads,<ref name="cnn.com">{{Cite news |title=U.S. cracks down on Iraq death squads |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/24/iraq.main/index.html |publisher=CNN |date=24 July 2006 |access-date=20 December 2006 |archive-date=6 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106182907/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/24/iraq.main/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
in the national capital of [[Baghdad]] some members of the now Shia [[Iraqi Police]] and [[Iraqi Army]] formed unofficial, unsanctioned, but long tolerated death squads.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/Iraq/Story/0,,1869439,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=US patrols to weed out militias posing as Iraqi police | first=Peter | last=Beaumont | date=11 September 2006 | access-date=1 May 2010 | archive-date=5 January 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010015/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/11/iraq.peterbeaumont | url-status=live }}</ref> They possibly have links to the [[Ministry of Interior (Iraq)|Interior Ministry]] and are popularly known as the 'black crows'. These groups operated either by night or by day. They usually arrested people, then either tortured or killed them.<ref name="Iraq's Death Squads">{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120300881.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Iraq's Death Squads | date=4 December 2005 | access-date=1 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=ALLBRITTON |first=CHRISTOPHER |date=2006-03-20 |title= Why Iraq's Police Are a Menace|language=en-US |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1175055,00.html |access-date=2023-12-29 |issn=0040-781X |archive-date=27 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927112734/https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1175055,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=Solomon |date=2005-11-29 |title=Killings Linked to Shiite Squads in Iraqi Police Force |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-29-fg-death29-story.html |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=29 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229185513/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-29-fg-death29-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The victims of these attacks were predominantly young males who had probably been suspected of being members of the [[Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)|Sunni insurgency]]. Agitators such as Abdul Razaq al-Na'as, Dr. Abdullateef al-Mayah, and Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi have also been killed. Women and children have also been arrested or killed.<ref name="'25,000 civilians' killed in Iraq">{{Cite news |title='25,000 civilians' killed in Iraq |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4692589.stm |publisher=BBC |date=19 July 2005 |access-date=20 December 2006 |archive-date=31 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060831072954/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4692589.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of these killings have also been simple robberies or other criminal activities.

A feature in a May 2005 issue of the magazine of ''[[The New York Times]]'' accused the U.S. military of modelling the "Wolf Brigade", the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, on the death squads that were used in the 1980s to crush the [[Marxist]] insurgency in El Salvador.<ref name=Nytimes050501>{{cite news |title=The Way of the Commandos |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ARMY.html |work=The New York Times |date=1 May 2005 |first=Peter |last=Maass |access-date=1 May 2010 |archive-date=18 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418193442/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ARMY.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2004, the US dispatched [[James Steele (US Colonel)|James Steele]] as an envoy and special training adviser to the Iraqi [[Special Police Commandos]] who were later accused of torture and death squad activities. Steele had served in El Salvador in the 1980s, where he helped train government units involved in human rights violations death squads in their war against the [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front|FMLNF]].<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news |title=From El Salvador to Iraq: Washington's man behind brutal police squads |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/06/el-salvador-iraq-police-squads-washington |newspaper=The Guardian |date=6 March 2013 |location=London |first1=Mona |last1=Mahmood |first2=Maggie |last2=O'Kane |first3=Chavala |last3=Madlena |first4=Teresa |last4=Smith |first5=Ben |last5=Ferguson |first6=Patrick |last6=Farrelly |first7=Guy |last7=Grandjean |first8=Josh |last8=Strauss |first9=Irene |last9=Baque |display-authors=8 |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=7 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207204447/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/06/el-salvador-iraq-police-squads-washington |url-status=live }}</ref>