thedrifter
05-16-06, 04:01 AM
Clashing forces can wear same uniform
Iraqi police attire easy to buy, making it hard to spot posing militants
ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Washington Post
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a row of grimy market stalls, a shopper's hand passes over a display of steel handcuffs, police batons and jumbled wool balaclava masks with oval slots gouged out for the eyes.
The hand pauses over a patch, embroidered with the letters "IP." "Five hundred dinar," the bored vendor grunts, about 35 cents for a badge marking the wearer as a bona fide member of the Iraqi police.
A set of Iraqi police officer's insignia: "Five hundred." A full army uniform, one of a dozen or so dangling on hangers from the tin roofs of the stalls: "Twenty thousand" -- about $13.50.
In Iraq, anyone can be anyone for the price of a uniform. And no one can be sure who that anyone is when armed men come knocking at the door at midnight or wave traffic to a stop.
Iraq is awash in foreign and domestic security companies; insurgent movements; religious militias of tens of thousands of men representing themselves as "people's armies" or as bodyguard details; armed wings of political parties; army, police and paramilitary groups; and criminal gangs posing as all of them.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, began an initiative this spring to put all its forces in a single, hard-to-copy uniform.
The police forces are dominated by the Shiite parties that lead Iraq's government and are widely believed to be infiltrated by the parties' militias.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr recently confirmed that there were death squads operating within the Interior Ministry police forces but insisted their numbers were few. Interior Ministry officials have said impostors in purloined uniforms were carrying out many of the crimes.
Iraqis say it will take more than a change of name and costume to clean up the police.
Whether the killers are police or impostors, the government is responsible, a Sunni political leader said.
"This whole phenomenon is a result of chaos and confusion inside the government," said Tarik al-Hashemi, a leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni group.
Developments in Iraq
• Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter during a raid against al-Qaida militants south of Baghdad and killed two soldiers, bringing the weekend death toll of American service members to seven, the U.S. military said Monday.
• The military identified five Camp Lejeune-based Marines killed in recent days: Lance Cpl. Jason Burnett, 20, of St. Cloud, Fla.; Lance Cpl. David GramesSanchez, 22, of Fort Wayne, Ind.; 2nd Lt. Michael Licalzi, 24, of Garden City, N.Y.; Cpl. Steve Vahaviolos, 21, of Airmont, N.Y. and Lance Cpl. Richard James, 20, of Seaford, Del.
• American forces killed more than 40 militants in five raids south of Baghdad, the military said.
• At least 20 Iraqis were killed in roadside bombings and drive-by shootings.
Ellie
Iraqi police attire easy to buy, making it hard to spot posing militants
ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Washington Post
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a row of grimy market stalls, a shopper's hand passes over a display of steel handcuffs, police batons and jumbled wool balaclava masks with oval slots gouged out for the eyes.
The hand pauses over a patch, embroidered with the letters "IP." "Five hundred dinar," the bored vendor grunts, about 35 cents for a badge marking the wearer as a bona fide member of the Iraqi police.
A set of Iraqi police officer's insignia: "Five hundred." A full army uniform, one of a dozen or so dangling on hangers from the tin roofs of the stalls: "Twenty thousand" -- about $13.50.
In Iraq, anyone can be anyone for the price of a uniform. And no one can be sure who that anyone is when armed men come knocking at the door at midnight or wave traffic to a stop.
Iraq is awash in foreign and domestic security companies; insurgent movements; religious militias of tens of thousands of men representing themselves as "people's armies" or as bodyguard details; armed wings of political parties; army, police and paramilitary groups; and criminal gangs posing as all of them.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, began an initiative this spring to put all its forces in a single, hard-to-copy uniform.
The police forces are dominated by the Shiite parties that lead Iraq's government and are widely believed to be infiltrated by the parties' militias.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr recently confirmed that there were death squads operating within the Interior Ministry police forces but insisted their numbers were few. Interior Ministry officials have said impostors in purloined uniforms were carrying out many of the crimes.
Iraqis say it will take more than a change of name and costume to clean up the police.
Whether the killers are police or impostors, the government is responsible, a Sunni political leader said.
"This whole phenomenon is a result of chaos and confusion inside the government," said Tarik al-Hashemi, a leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni group.
Developments in Iraq
• Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter during a raid against al-Qaida militants south of Baghdad and killed two soldiers, bringing the weekend death toll of American service members to seven, the U.S. military said Monday.
• The military identified five Camp Lejeune-based Marines killed in recent days: Lance Cpl. Jason Burnett, 20, of St. Cloud, Fla.; Lance Cpl. David GramesSanchez, 22, of Fort Wayne, Ind.; 2nd Lt. Michael Licalzi, 24, of Garden City, N.Y.; Cpl. Steve Vahaviolos, 21, of Airmont, N.Y. and Lance Cpl. Richard James, 20, of Seaford, Del.
• American forces killed more than 40 militants in five raids south of Baghdad, the military said.
• At least 20 Iraqis were killed in roadside bombings and drive-by shootings.
Ellie