BAGHDAD — After a series of prison abuse scandals that have inflamed sectarian tensions, U.S. officials announced plans Thursday to rein in Iraqi special police forces, increasing the number of American troops assigned to work with them and requiring consultations before the Iraqis mount raids in Baghdad.
The decision to impose more day-to-day oversight suggests a recognition within the U.S. military that the heavy-handed tactics of some Iraqi units, which are to increasingly take on the role of fighting insurgents, have aggravated the sectarian strife that helps fuel the insurgency.
More than 2 1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion and 1 1/2 years after the formal end of the occupation, it also illustrates that Americans still have the final word on security matters.
Iraq's Sunni Muslim Arabs, who dominated Iraq under former President Saddam Hussein, have complained of being targeted by the security forces now controlled by Shiite Muslims. The bodies of hundreds of Sunni men have been fished out of the Tigris River or found in abandoned lots and garbage dumps. Many had been tied, blindfolded and shot execution-style. Relatives often say their family members were taken away by Iraqi security forces or people dressed as such.
Sunni anger at the change of power in Iraq has largely fueled the insurgency.
The U.S. announcement comes after several abuse scandals involving Iraqi Interior Ministry forces. Last month, U.S. troops raided a secret prison where ministry forces reportedly were holding dozens of emaciated and tortured inmates, many of them Sunnis.
Shiites, meanwhile, say they have been the victims of retaliatory killings.
On Thursday, a truck driver visiting relatives in a suburb south of Baghdad found that the entire 14-member family had been shot and killed.
In other violence, a suicide bomber disguised in a police uniform killed four police officers at a checkpoint near the Interior Ministry, officials said.
Seven of nine Iraqi special police brigades in Baghdad now have 40 to 45 Americans attached to each. Under the new plan, hundreds of additional U.S. troops will team up with each of the nine brigades.
The plan, which is expected to be formally approved in Washington in a few weeks, will be implemented in the capital first but may serve as a model for the rest of the country, said a senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
