BAQUBAH, IRAQ — Tariq Jawrani inspected his brother's corpse. Blood crusted the nose and mouth, his skull was fractured, and bruises covered his stomach, back and legs, he said.
Holes were gouged in Bashir's flesh. Baqubah police said the marks were from tubes inserted because of kidney failure, but his family said the 34-year-old had been in good health before police officers detained him at a checkpoint late last month.
Iraqi police insist that the Sunni leader's death last week was of natural causes and that he had confessed to killing Shiite families in Diyala province.
His family and supporters counter that he had fought Islamist extremists and helped resettle Shiite families in the last year as a member of the U.S.-funded Sons of Iraq security force.
Tariq described his one hospital visit with his brother. "He was unconscious, and we wrapped him with a blanket. One of my relatives who wanted to test his consciousness asked him: 'Do you know my name?' and he answered with one [sentence]: 'They killed me.' Afterward, they didn't let us to stay," he told The Times.
Multiple investigations are underway, but the episode speaks volumes about the deep mistrust between Diyala's Shiite and Sunni populations, and lays bare the difficulties Iraq faces in reaching reconciliation.
The conduct of senior commanders in the Shiite-dominated security forces in Diyala has been questioned in recent months, with their behavior evoking memories of Baghdad during the depths of civil war.
The Iraqi army and police have arrested hundreds of Sunni Arabs, many of them prominent members of the Sons of Iraq and the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni bloc in the parliament.
"The Iraqi security forces have played a terrible role in Diyala," said a close observer of the Iraqi government, who could not be identified because of political sensitivities. "I view it [Diyala] as the blackest of the black in terms of sectarian operations.
"I have real questions about how things are done out there," he said.
Despite the arrests and allegations of torture, U.S. officials have agreed to hand full control of the Sons of Iraq program to the Diyala security command next month. The U.S. Army has issued statements expressing confidence that there would be a successful transition, citing the transfer of responsibility for fighters in Baghdad to the Iraqi government.
