Mission Accomplished

This article nicely captures the horror in Iraq:

An interview with the family of a man recently mutilated and killed, a prominent sheik considered to be the prince of the Tamim tribes, gives a glimpse into the complicated underworld that is, in part, responsible for the trucks full of bodies collected around this city every day.

The man, Sheik Hamid Mohammed al-Suhail, 75, was found Wednesday in the Shuala neighborhood of Baghdad, a Shiite redoubt, by members of his tribe, which is mixed Shiite and Sunni, who were searching for him. He disappeared last Sunday, and his mutilated body was found wrapped in a blanket, covered in blood. The search party recognized his body by the distinctive way the beard was trimmed.

He had been an outspoken critic of the sectarian fighting and participated in a recent conference in Cairo on national reconciliation.

The kidnappers, whom his relatives hinted they knew but would describe only as “militiamen” for fear of reprisal, initially called his family asking for $100,000, said a nephew, Sheik Ali Sammi al-Suhail.

The family told the kidnappers they did not have the money, the nephew said.

“The body was mutilated in a brutal way,” he said. “They used a drill on him and perhaps other tools.”

One hand and one leg were almost completely severed.

The nephew said he had been told by people who said they witnessed the killing that after his uncle was tortured, his body was thrown from a two-story building. He survived the fall but was brutalized further before finally being killed.

And this is just what's in the bottom half of the article.