Iraqi VP Hashemi says National Police preventing food, medicine from reaching Sunnis, cooperating in death squads

The FPS force is notorious for participation in sectarian torture and murder. As recently as the end of November the Washington Post labeled it as providing the 'manpower for sectarian party militias and death squads' and Iraq's Interior Minister blamed it for the majority of violence in Baghdad. Just 4 weeks ago Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training Iraqi forces, said 25% of the force needed to be expunged. At about the same time, Vice President Hashemi labeled the FPS as "being filled with sectarian militias, terrorists and organized crime gangs".

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi national police has helped militias prevent medicine, food and fuel from getting to an area south of Baghdad, and even participated in slayings, Iraq’s vice president wrote in a letter to the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

In the Dec. 24 letter to Gen. George Casey, Tarik al-Hashemi, a Sunni, says residents of the Madaein district, which includes Salman Pak, “are victims of a scheme aiming to restore this district to be under Persian Iranian predominance,” specifically by an Iranian regime called Ali al-Shawki.

The regime has seized the local mosque and converted it into an “abattoir to slaughter innocent human beings on a sectarian basis,” al-Hashemi wrote to Casey, commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq.

Since November 2006, the Iraqi national police’s “Wolf Brigade” has helped militias block deliveries of medicine, food, fuel, and even commit murder, al-Hashemi says. He lists nine demands, including the “evacuation” of the national police, delivery of aid and a “protective force consisting of the inhabitants of the area.”

U.S. intelligence officials said they are worried the local Sunnis are prepared to form their own militia if they do not believe the Iraqi government — or U.S. forces — are working quickly enough to protect the people.

Read the rest at Stars and Stripes

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