Death Squads

BAGHDAD -- American troops are stepping up operations in the Baghdad area to combat death squads and dampen down the violence threatening the new unity government, a US general said yesterday . Two more US soldiers were killed yesterday , the military said, bringing to at least 2,567 the number of US military personnel who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. US and Iraqi forces conducted 19 operations last week targeting death squads, said US spokesman Major General William Caldwell . All but two were in Baghdad, he said.

BAGHDAD - Lawyers for Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president, who is accused of running death squads, quit the case Sunday in protest after judges rejected their request for evidence for his defense. The development underscored Tariq al-Hashemi's assertion that he will not get a fair trial on the charges he denies and says are politically motivated. The case threatens to paralyze Iraq's government by fueling simmering Sunni and Kurdish resentments against the Shi'ite prime minister, whom critics accuse of monopolizing power.

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi judicial panel said yesterday that the Sunni vice president and his employees ran death squads that killed security officials and Shi'ite pilgrims. The findings, touted as the first independent assessment of the accusations, were likely to only further increase sectarian tensions over the politically divisive case. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has denied the charges, and the accusations have angered many Sunnis who see them as part of a campaign by the Shi'ite prime minister to push them out of politics.

Interpol on Tuesday put Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president on the equivalent of its most-wanted list at the behest of the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. Tariq al-Hashemi, who is currently in Turkey, is being tried in absentia in Baghdad on charges of terrorism as well as guiding and financing death squads that targeted government officials, security forces and Shiite pilgrims. The Iraqi government links him to about 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks, and says the death squads were largely composed of the vice president's bodyguards and other employees.

SAO PAULO -- The slaying of a man who testified about police death squads to a UN human rights official was condemned by international rights groups yesterday, but barely registered in a country where police abuses are routine. Almost every day, police operations in crowded shantytowns across Brazil claim lives and create an image of urban warfare between the police and the poor, but many Brazilians contend that the victims of police killings must have done something wrong. Groups ranging from the United Nations to Amnesty International deplored Thursday's killing of Gerson de Jesus Bispo in...

Iraq's fugitive vice president has flown to Turkey, his third stop in what he has called an "official visit" to regional countries. A statement issued late Monday by Tariq al-Hashemi's office says he will meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the developments in the region. Al-Hashemi is sought by Iraq's Shiite-dominated government on terror charges for allegedly running death squads against Shiite pilgrims, government officials and security forces.

BAGHDAD -- The new US ambassador to Iraq acknowledged yesterday that the country faced serious security problems, but expressed optimism that it would overcome the plague of persistent violence and hold its first democratic elections in the coming months. "It's an exciting experiment," Ambassador John D. Negroponte said in his first press briefing since the United States handed over sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government June 28. Negroponte spoke hours after a car bomb attack on Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan's convoy killed five people, but did not harm Hassan.

NAIROBI - Kenyan university students clashed with riot police last night over the slayings of a former student leader and an activist who documented alleged extrajudicial killings. It was unclear who shot former student Paul Oulu and lawyer Oscar Kingara as they were stuck in traffic outside the university last night. The deaths occurred a week after a UN official accused Kenya's police of running death squads and the day that a government spokesman accused Kingara of being linked to a notorious gang.

I know what you’re thinking. The sight of Adrien Brody waking up to find himself plummeting from the sky in the opening scene of “Predators’’ is all too apt a career metaphor. How did a young star who seemed destined to save serious acting turn into another action figure? Who cares? Where do I get my hands on one? Brody looks a bit like the muscled, vaguely human reptiles hunting him down, except he’s all Eastwood, Heston, and Stallone, too — hilariously, humorlessly macho.

BAGHDAD -- Top US generals warned yesterday that violence will increase in Baghdad during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and said Al Qaeda in Iraq already has intensified its assaults against American troops. The warnings came as violence killed about 65 people and wounded more than 100 in two days. At least 23 people died in bombings and shootings around the country yesterday, and 10 bodies were found. The day's deadliest attack took place in Samarra, where a suicide car bombing outside a Sunni tribal leader's house killed 10 and wounded 38. Meanwhile, a UN...

The terror trial of Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president was postponed Thursday as his lawyers appealed to have parliament create a special court to hear the case that has touched off a political crisis and could deepen the nation's sectarian divide. Tariq al-Hashemi, one of the nation's highest-ranking Sunni politicians, was not in court to face charges that he ran death squads that targeted government officials, security forces and Shiite pilgrims. Instead, his lawyers filed motions to have Iraq's Supreme Court direct parliament to set up a special tribunal for high-ranking officials.

Iraq's fugitive vice president has flown to Turkey, his third stop in what he has called an "official visit" to regional countries. A statement issued late Monday by Tariq al-Hashemi's office says he will meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the developments in the region. Al-Hashemi is sought by Iraq's Shiite-dominated government on terror charges for allegedly running death squads against Shiite pilgrims, government officials and security forces.

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi judicial panel said yesterday that the Sunni vice president and his employees ran death squads that killed security officials and Shi'ite pilgrims. The findings, touted as the first independent assessment of the accusations, were likely to only further increase sectarian tensions over the politically divisive case. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has denied the charges, and the accusations have angered many Sunnis who see them as part of a campaign by the Shi'ite prime minister to push them out of politics.

I know what you’re thinking. The sight of Adrien Brody waking up to find himself plummeting from the sky in the opening scene of “Predators’’ is all too apt a career metaphor. How did a young star who seemed destined to save serious acting turn into another action figure? Who cares? Where do I get my hands on one? Brody looks a bit like the muscled, vaguely human reptiles hunting him down, except he’s all Eastwood, Heston, and Stallone, too — hilariously, humorlessly macho.

NAIROBI - Stone-throwing students clashed with Kenyan riot police and paramilitary officers yesterday during a protest demanding the resignation of the police commissioner over the killings of a student and two activists last week. More than 1,000 students marched peacefully through the city center, but the demonstration degenerated into violence after youths began throwing stones and looting shops. Taxi drivers threw stones back, sparking a stampede. About 100 students eventually moved onto the main campus at the University of Nairobi and showered the police and...

NAIROBI - Kenyan university students clashed with riot police last night over the slayings of a former student leader and an activist who documented alleged extrajudicial killings. It was unclear who shot former student Paul Oulu and lawyer Oscar Kingara as they were stuck in traffic outside the university last night. The deaths occurred a week after a UN official accused Kenya's police of running death squads and the day that a government spokesman accused Kingara of being linked to a notorious gang.

BAGHDAD -- US and Iraqi soldiers captured six members of an alleged death squad in Baghdad yesterday, hoping to quell the rampant sectarian violence dividing the capital, while attacks elsewhere in Iraq left at least 26 people dead. Representatives of Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups met in Cairo to discuss ways to reconcile. Some 30 delegates representing Shi'ites, Sunnis, Kurds, and other smaller minorities participated in discussions sponsored by the Cairo-based Arab League.

NAIROBI - Stone-throwing students clashed with Kenyan riot police and paramilitary officers yesterday during a protest demanding the resignation of the police commissioner over the killings of a student and two activists last week. More than 1,000 students marched peacefully through the city center, but the demonstration degenerated into violence after youths began throwing stones and looting shops. Taxi drivers threw stones back, sparking a stampede. About 100 students eventually moved onto the main campus at the University of Nairobi and showered the police and...

BAGHDAD - A Sunni schoolteacher was hijacked as he drove to visit his sister in a predominantly Shi'ite area of Baghdad yesterday. His body was found an hour later, a grim reminder that sectarian violence persists in the capital despite a recent decline. Iraqi police blamed Shi'ite gang members for the killing. Ahmed al-Janabi, a 45-year-old father of three, was stopped at a southwest Baghdad intersection by gunmen in two cars. They drove him away in his own car after inspecting his national ID and food ration card.

The dwarf Serb thug really existed, according to the end titles of "The Hunting Party," and there's the movie's underlying problem. When something seems too bizarre to be true, that's generally how it plays onscreen. Richard Shepard's ironic romp through postwar Bosnia revels in such odd touches, though. The film's a comedy-drama about US journalists tracking a war criminal, and if that sounds like an exceedingly tricky tone to pull off, you're right. It worked reasonably well for Shepard's last movie, the arch neurotic-hitman tale "The...