"Who's the enemy?" distraught Iraqis wonder

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http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nBAK535856

"Who's the enemy?" distraught Iraqis wonder

BAGHDAD, July 25 (Reuters) - As Iraq spirals deeper by the day into violence and lawlessness, Baghdad residents say brutality and corruption are spreading among the very security forces that are supposed to be protecting them.

Some maintain that the situation has grown so bad that at times they can't distinguish the behaviour of U.S.-trained Iraqi police and soldiers from that of militants or criminals.

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"Sometimes we don't know who the enemy is," said Ismael Mahmoud, a 32-year-old businessman whose cousin was recently seized by a special police unit and later found dead.

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A report by the Pentagon and U.S. State Department, due for release next week, says Iraq's police service is taking on too many recruits who are barely literate, have criminal records, or are even insurgents, according to Time magazine.

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