Iraqi leader ‘operated death squads’
After a two-month investigation, the nine-judge committee found at least 150 cases where either Tariq al-Hashemi, his bodyguards or other employees were linked to attacks ranging from roadside bombs to assassinations of security agents and Shiite pilgrims, Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said.
He said the death squads operated from 2005 to 2011, and were responsible for a bombing last December on the government’s Integrity Commission headquarters that killed 25 people and the assassination of a deputy education minister in 2010.
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Hide AdA spokesman for Mr al-Hashemi declined to comment. But Mr al-Hashemi, Iraq’s highest ranking Sunni politician, has denied the allegations in the past, and has accused Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki of co-ordinating a smear campaign against him as part of a power grab.