Running With The Wolves

By Andrew Gray
27 Mar 2007
15:08:38 GMT
AlertNet

FORT RILEY, Kan., March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Army Maj. Charles Miller suspects members of the Iraqi police unit he was advising of killing, kidnapping and beating Sunni Muslims and leading him into an ambush.

..."They were all very friendly but they all have other motives on the side," recalled Miller, who completed his year-long mission last month and is now teaching other U.S. soldiers soon to deploy in advisory teams.

"They're friendly because as long as the Americans are with them, they can get away with more because the Iraqi people see Americans with them and think everything is legitimate."

The battalion would detain far more Sunnis than Shi'ites in raids, Miller said. The few Shi'ites would be released while Sunnis would be mistreated before being transferred to prison.

"Some of the people, when they showed up, were pretty well beat up," said Miller, calmly recounting his story at Fort Riley, Kansas, where the Army trains advisory teams.

Now, every detainee is photographed on arrest so any mistreatment can be documented, he said.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 U.S. troops serve in "transition teams" advising Iraqi units.

...Miller's team discovered arrest warrants used by the Wolf Brigade often were not legitimate and told the battalion his team would not go on any mission without correct documents.

...The brigade moved from Baghdad to Salman Pak, a mainly Sunni area southeast of the capital. The police confiscated weapons from local people during the day together with their American advisers, Miller recalled.

"The Wolf Brigade went back in that night and started kidnapping and killing people, burned a couple of houses down," he said.

Local people then attacked the unit, which asked for help from Miller's team. But Miller refused, as he knew from U.S. soldiers patrolling the area why the police were under attack.