Two Iraqi Ex-officials Face Trial Over Sunni Killings -AFP

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Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP)--Two former health ministry officials go on trial in Baghdad this week over claims they allowed Shiite death squads to use ambulances and hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings, officials said.

It marks the first time high-ranking Shiites are being charged over sectarian killings and is seen as a test of the commitment by Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki to crack down on Sunni and Shiite militants alike.

Hakim al-Zamili, a former deputy health minister, and Brigadier General Hamid al-Shammari, who headed the ministry's security forces, were arrested early last year, but there had been doubt they would be brought to trial by the Shiite-led government.

The men allegedly formed a private Shiite militia that would storm into hospitals and snatch wounded and sick Sunni Arabs from their beds, issue death threats to doctors and gun down family members visiting patients, according to witnesses who testified at a preliminary inquiry before a three-man tribunal


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