Gorilla’s Guides

Gorilla’s Guide to Death Squad Typology - Extrajudicial Detention And Killing

Operation types

There are many ways in which death squads from different backgrounds operate. They differ in size, techniques used to reach their objective, means of covering or promoting their activities, motivations, selected targets and use of weapons and equipment. Unlike in many other LICs, death squads in Iraq do not carry out pogrom-like attacks on villages or city quarters, nor do they practise open mass murder operations against certain sects (they are conducted by suicide bombers who cannot be counted among death squads in the Iraqi conflict). Iraqi-type death squads rather carry out operations aimed at slow, gradual eradication of a certain group, or they directly attack individuals in pre-planned assassinations. They seldom try to cover their actions completely, instead they often count on the possible side effects of their operations and certain groups even boast of their operational successes. Death squads in Iraq are involved in political warfare, their activities are intended to achieve public and political effects, in pursuit of their goals.

Armed resistance to the American led invasion of Irak and the overthrow of the Iraki government emerged rapidly and accounts for the vast majority of violent attacks within Irak. However there are several foci of armed conflict within the country involving many actors. These actors have widely divergent agendas but all use death squads as a weapon.

The use of this weapon was noted early in the occupation period and rapidly became SOP amongst all the factions vying with each other in Irak. Resistance groups, militias, and elements of the security forces all use this tactic. The differing aims of the actors have led each to develop its own death squads it is thus a mistake to assume that their methods are identical. Each has different targets, methods, and ways of covering their tracks. It is no exaggeration to say that one of the wars being waged in Irak is the war of the death squads.

Characteristic of this war is that the diversity of actors and motivations ensures that a situation remarkably close to a Hobbesian state of nature in which each group pursues only their own interest. Alliances where they occur are both fragile and unstable, a feature exacerbated by the very existence of death squads, as the use of death squads in interfactional strife has given rise to extremist sectarian, political and ideological tensions amongst the populace.

Death Squad Operational Categorisation:

Depending on the background from which they come a death squad will vary in:

• Motivation.
• Size.
• Techniques used to accomplish their objective.
• Means of covering their activities.
• Means of promoting their activities.
• Targets selected.
• Weapons and equipment used.

It should be noted that the Iraki situation is unusual in that the death squads operating there typically do not carry out pogrom-style attacks on villages or selected city quarters. Nor do they engage in spectacular mass murder operations against particular ethnic groups or sects. Attacks of those types are carried out by suicide bombers and cannot be classed as death squad activity.

In Irak death squads are engaged either in lengthy campaigns aimed at eliminating the target group(s) over a relatively long period of time or in planned assassinations of individuals. They rarely try to cover their actions completely relying instead on the fear generated by their actions to provide the level of cover needed. Several groups boast of their operations both on Internet sites and by using posters (or graffiti) in the neighbourhood where their target lived. The purpose is political and twofold:

• To maintain support amongst their base.
• To increase the level of fear in the target community.

Extrajudicial Detention And Killing

Extrajudicial detention and killing is the rounding up of victims by a death squad:

• Wearing uniforms of one or other of the security organs of the state
• Using vehicles of one or other of the security organs of the state
• Using ID provided by one or other of the security organs of the state

Operations of this type are carried out by relatively large death squad whose members use vehicles of the type used by of one or other of the security organs of the state. The numbers of death squad members involved is relatively large, they usually result in the killing of their victims and the disposal of their corpses. Several types of operation can be noted. 

Direct Seizure:

In a direct seizure operation victims are snatched either directly from their homes or from  the street on their way to work or a market or from some other place that they are known to frequent. The technique is used particularly for rounding up more than one victim from a particular district at the same time.

Direct Seizure Target Selection:

In a direct seizure operation targets are generally selected one or other of the following criteria or some combination of them:

• Political affiliation.
• Sectarian affiliation.
• Membership of an ethnic minority.
• Membership of a religious minority.
• Tribal affiliation.
• Status as an official in the Saddam era.
• Status as a member of the Iraki armed forces in the Saddam era.

Direct Seizure Methodology:

This kind of operation generally involves rounding victims by armed men:

• Wearing Iraki green zone government army or police uniforms - in particular uniforms of the various special forces attached to the Interior Ministry.
• Carrying weaponry and other equipment identical to that issued by the green zone government to its security organs - in particular weapons issued to the various special forces attached to the Interior Ministry.
• Carrying ID identical to that issued by the green zone government to its security organs - in particular IDs issued by the various special forces attached to the Interior Ministry. 
• Riding in vehicles indistinguishable from those used by the green zone government to its security organs - in vehicles of the type used by the various special forces attached to the Interior Ministry.

The death squad in short is either one of the green zone government’s security units such or it has such access to the green zone government’s security units as to be indistinguishable from them. The process therefore is a kidnapping made to look like an arrest. An important part of the process is that it leaves behind witnesses such as the family of the victim or their friends and associates thereby spreading fear in the target community.

Direct Seizure Disposal of Corpses:

A feature of this weapon is how the corpses are disposed of. In most cases they bodies show signs of torture typical of such signs are:

• Drill holes in soft body parts.
• Drill holes in the joints.
• Drill holes in the skull.
• Drill holes in in the face.
• Burns from cigarettes, domestic irons, blow torches and welders.
• Electrical burns particularly to the genitalia.
• Acid burns.
• Severe bruising from heavy beatings.

Almost invariably the victims have been bound or handcuffed using disposable handcuffs. The killings themselves are generally "execution style" the victims are shot either in the temple or through the back of the head. Recently however specialised killing techniques such as strangulation, and throat cutting have become more common, some cases of suffocation have also been noted, as has drowning.

The corpses are in urban or suburban areas. Sometimes they are left in relatively large numbers. The purpose of leaving them in such easy to find locales is to enhance the political and public side-effects amongst the target’s community and the public at large.