U.S. Forces Arrest Father, Son in '82 Iraqi Massacre

Washington Post ^ | 2/27/05 | Jackie Spinner

[saquin]

BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 -- U.S. forces have arrested an Iraqi father and son accused of participating in a 1982 massacre in the predominantly Shiite Muslim village of Dujail in retaliation for an assassination attempt on then-President Saddam Hussein.

Senior U.S. officials said in interviews that Abdulla Rwayid and Muzhir Abdulla Rwayid were arrested Monday and charged with crimes against humanity for their alleged role in the killing of hundreds of people associated with the Dawa party, a Shiite group that carried out the attempt on Hussein's life on July 8, 1982.

Charges against the two detained men were referred to the Iraqi Special Tribunal, the entity responsible for trying those accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Iraq between 1968 and 2003, when Hussein's Baath Party ruled the country.

The charges arose from a series of events in Dujail, located about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, after the failed assassination attempt. According to some reports, up to 400 people were killed. A senior U.S. legal adviser in Baghdad, who spoke on condition that he not be named, said the Rwayids were charged in connection with 147 deaths.

[saquin]

And, in unrelated news, at the end of the article...

Hamoudi Hadib, 45, a grocer in Ramadi, said he hopes the U.S. forces kill all of the insurgents.

"They prevent us from working," he said. "If Islam and religion become like this, we don't need it. They hurt us so much. We don't blame the Americans because they insisted on continuing their mission, but we blame those Arabs who do not want to leave our country. They should leave."