AFP, Diwaniyah, Iraq, May 26, 2009 – An Iraqi court on Tuesday condemned eight Shiite militia leaders to death on a range of terrorism charges including murder and planting bombs.
’Diwaniyah criminal court passed the death sentence against the heads of ’special groups’ under Article 4 of the law on terrorism,’ said Brigadier General Abdul Aziz al-Salhi, a police spokesman in the town south of Baghdad.
The general said the eight Shiite militia chiefs were convicted of murder, robbery, planting homemade bombs and firing rockets in Diwaniyah province.
The US military and Iraqi authorities use the term ’special groups’ to refer to extremist Shiite militias allegedly trained, armed and financed in neighbouring Iran, which denies the charges.
The same court in Diwaniyah handed down the death sentence to two senior ’special group’ militants in April.
The US command considers the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr as part of the groups, which the American military said on Sunday have reduced their attacks in Iraq.
Most attacks this year have been blamed on Sunni extremists of Al-Qaeda.