|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44925-2003Mar28.html
Hussein's Enforcers At Work
(Washington Post) - David Ignatius Last Tuesday, Sheik Rahim, the head of a major Shiite tribe in Basra, was brought before Ali Hassan Majid, the man Hussein designated as military commander of southern Iraq. Majid, dubbed "Chemical Ali" because of his role in chemical attacks against Iraqi Kurds during the 1980s, demanded to know whether Sheik Rahim had ordered his tribe to defend the regime. When the tribal leader equivocated, he was killed. The same day in Basra, seven members of the Baath Party militia - who act as enforcers of party orders - were shot and killed by Baath Party "execution units" because they had failed to prevent Iraqi army soldiers from fleeing attacks by British troops. Last week, 51 soldiers were executed in Kirkuk because they were thought to have been in touch with members of the Iraqi opposition, sources said.