Photos by Andrea Bruce – The Washington Post
The city’s police chief, Col. Faisal Ismail al-Zobaie, a husky man with a leathered face and a firm voice that resonates with authority, ordered an aide to shut his office door. He turned to his computer. Across the screen flashed a video, purportedly made by the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.
In the video, branches are thrown into a pit the size of a coffin, then doused with kerosene and ignited. The camera pans to three blindfolded men, kneeling, mouths sealed with tape. Six armed men in black masks stand behind them. One declares: “These three men fought and killed al-Qaeda. We will punish them according to Islam.” The masked men then kick the three into the burning grave.
Zobaie angrily turned off the video. “How can we show mercy to those people?” he asked. “Do you want me to show mercy to them if I capture them?”
Check it out here.