Iraqi Shias have admitted taking part in brutal attacks on members of their own religious community after being recruited as paid hitmen for the Sunni terrorist leader, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
The confessions to their involvement in murders, kidnappings and car bombings have shocked fellow Shias, who until now have maintained that most of the attacks against them have been carried out by Sunni insurgents intent on starting civil war.
One self-confessed hitman, who identified himself as Ali Mehdi, a taxi driver from the holy Shia city of Kerbala, said he had led a local cell of four Shia insurgents. Asked why he had carried out attacks on his own people, he said he had been attracted by the salary and the chance of becoming an insurgent "emir" - the title given to fighters who can prove they have killed 10 people or more.
Claims made on the programme are sometimes viewed with scepticism because of suspicions that suspects are beaten into making their confessions. In the case of Mr Mehdi and his accomplices, however, a witness to a kidnapping is understood to have identified the men as being responsible.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/24/wirq24.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/24/ixworld.html-----------------------------------------------------------------
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