BAGHDAD, Iraq - Days after Iraq's new Shiite-led government was announced on April 28, the bodies of Sunni Muslim men began turning up at the capital's central morgue after the men had been detained by people wearing Iraqi police uniforms.
Iraqi and American officials said the murders aren't being investigated systematically, but in dozens of interviews with families and Iraqi officials, and a review of medical records, a Knight Ridder reporter and two special correspondents found more than 30 examples of this type of killing in less than a week.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the Iraqi police, denies any involvement in the killings. But eyewitnesses said that many of the dead were apprehended by large groups of men driving white Toyota Land Cruisers with police markings. The men were wearing police commando uniforms and bulletproof vests, carrying expensive 9-millimeter Glock pistols and using sophisticated radios, the witnesses said.
"It's Latin America once again. Ask Rumsfeld where the Death Squads are coming from"
The Taliban claims to have used a new weapon to shoot down a US military helicopter in a remote region of Afghanistan.
The 17 US troops, including special forces, aboard the Chinook helicopter that crashed after being hit by ground fire in an anti-militant operation are believed to have died, a US official said.
Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said fighters shot down the aircraft in the village of Shorak using "a new type of weapon" he did not describe.
"This is a huge success for the Taliban," he said, adding that the fighters had video of the crash and would post photographs on their web site.
Nasdaq.com: Downed US Helicopter In Afghanistan Backed By Another:TV
Sources at the U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday that the CH-47 Chinook military transport helicopter that crashed in a mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan was part of a two-helicopter formation, NBC News reported Tuesday.
Information of the helicopter crash was relayed by the crew of the second helicopter, who reported seeing the helicopter tumbling down the mountain, NBC said. There was some ground activity reported by the crew of the second helicopter around the crashed aircraft, NBC reported.
The NBC report could give credence to the Taliban's claims - yet unconfirmed - that they shot down the helicopter and executed some U.S. personnel aboard the aircraft. The helicopter was said to be carrying at least 16 U.S. military personnel.
