'Dirty Brigades': US-Trained Iraqi Forces Investigated for War Crimes

U.S.-trained and armed Iraqi military units, the key to the American strategy against ISIS, are under investigation for committing some of the same atrocities as the terror group. [...] Some Iraqi units have already been cut off from U.S. assistance over "credible" human rights violations, according to a senior military official on the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

The investigation [...] was launched after officials were confronted with numerous allegations of “war crimes,” based in part on dozens of ghastly videos and still photos that appear to show uniformed soldiers from some of Iraq's most elite units and militia members massacring civilians, torturing and executing prisoners, and displaying severed heads.

'Dirty Brigades': US-Trained Iraqi Forces Investigated for War Crimes

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The investigation, being conducted by the Iraqi government, was launched after officials were confronted with numerous allegations of “war crimes,” based in part on dozens of ghastly videos and still photos that appear to show uniformed soldiers from some of Iraq's most elite units and militia members massacring civilians, torturing and executing prisoners, and displaying severed heads.

The videos and photos are part of a trove of disturbing images that ABC News discovered has been circulating within the dark corners of Iraqi social media since last summer. In some U.S. military and Iraqi circles, the Iraqi units and militias under scrutiny are referred to as the "dirty brigades."

The extent of the US-backed "Dirty Brigades" is being actively avoided by US media:

Media White Wash: U.S.-Backed "Dirty Brigade" Operating in Iraq Anyone surprised? Aside, of course, from those who rely on the commercial media.


This isn't entirely a new development either - recall the charges of US-trained "death squads" unleashed both in 2003 and 2009, that engaged in many of the same tactics, although never as barbaric as beheadings shown in the article video above.

From 2009:

Iraq's New Death Squad

The Iraq Special Operations Forces (ISOF) is probably the largest special forces outfit ever built by the United States, and it is free of many of the controls that most governments employ to rein in such lethal forces. The project started in the deserts of Jordan just after the Americans took Baghdad in April 2003. There, the US Army's Special Forces, or Green Berets, trained mostly 18-year-old Iraqis with no prior military experience. The resulting brigade was a Green Beret's dream come true: a deadly, elite, covert unit, fully fitted with American equipment, that would operate for years under US command and be unaccountable to Iraqi ministries and the normal political process.

According to Congressional records, the ISOF has grown into nine battalions, which extend to four regional "commando bases" across Iraq. By December, each will be complete with its own "intelligence infusion cell," which will operate independently of Iraq's other intelligence networks. The ISOF is at least 4,564 operatives strong, making it approximately the size of the US Army's own Special Forces in Iraq. Congressional records indicate that there are plans to double the ISOF over the next "several years."

With the contention that Iraqi forces captured 4 US-Israeli "Military Advisors" in Tikrit who were working closely with ISIS/ISIL, and were captured at their HQ (see: Iraq arrests 4 people,some of them Americans that were training ISIS) one now has to ask: JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING THERE?

Anyone still want to believe the US of A is an innocent player in the ongoing, preemptive "war of choice" we embroiled ourselves in? Or that ISIS is just a bunch of jihadis? (that strangely enough never attack Israeli or American targets, just Syria, Libya, and Iraq).

Bring on the nukes, let's put this planet out of it's misery.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Anyone still want to believe the US of A is an innocent player in the ongoing, preemptive "war of choice" we embroiled ourselves in? Or that ISIS is just a bunch of jihadis? (that strangely enough never attack Israeli or American targets, just Syria, Libya, and Iraq).

I never did and the key to me was and is trying to find out how far these operations (by either the U.S. or other U.S. attached group) would go, the answer may well be all the way.

Bring on the nukes, let's put this planet out of it's misery.

I hope not because I love music, women and my life in general right now and I truly hope that just because the planet is falling under the black magic of corporatism, it doesn't come to that.

We never know who to trust over there do we.

Anyone who thinks the atrocities ISIS has endulged in are worse than the atrocities committed against ISIS is living in a dream world.


They're equally deplorable.




I guess the only difference is that ISIS would do it to you and me...

While so far, the other side's atrocities seem to be committed solely on ISIS or their sympathisers.



Doesn't make it right though.

No one can better terrorize Iraqis than other Iraqis. They are the champs.

They need absolutely no training for this. Matter of fact, they do in spite of the training they received at the hands of US advisers.

a reply to: ABNARTY

I do have my doubts that anything they were taught would come in handy outside of military strategy...


Barbarism doesn't need to be taught to anyone...
We can all do that.


I guess you could try to teach people to curb those actions.

Even then, emotional trauma caused by the enemy will always supersede those lessons.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Are the actions of some indicative of the same actions by all?

The US is not the only nation training and the US did not order these individuals to commit war crimes.

We are talking about people with severe religious differences who have been killing each other for a long time.

Turn abouts fair play.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

US have a tendency to flag every where that is a conflict of interest, historically is been something hard to ignore. I feel that once the Taliban and Osama was done with, other way to keep the fights had to emerge and that was what ISIS was for to take the place, so it will never be any way of peace for the region.

Conflicts are profitable for the right people.

Now when it comes to what is going on in Iraq with US trained troops you have to understand that the people in the region have their own way to do their business, war crimes, conflicts tribal related, atrocities committed is part of their every day live for centuries, do not expect an old dog to learn new tricks over night, sometimes they never will change and will die the same way that they live their lives.