“They were arrested and put into custody where they were tortured and locked into an airtight and overheated container."

BAGHDAD, July 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The Association of Muslim Scholars, the main Sunni religious authority in Iraq, said US-trained Iraqi commandos had arrested and tortured eleven civilians for no reason other than being Sunnis.

In an impromptu press conference in its Baghdad headquarters Monday, July 12, the AMS said ten of the detainees, all members of the Sunni Al-Zawbai tribe, suffocated to death after having been locked for hours in an airtight container.

The incident took place Sunday, July 10, afternoon when Iraqi police commandos arrested a group of family members from the village of Radwaniya, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, who went to Al-Nour hospital in Al-Shula district to visit some relatives.

They were taken to a police detention center where they were tortured and locked in an airtight and overheated container.

Ten of the detainees breathed their last, while the eleventh, Mohammad Ahmad Al-Zawbai, survived.

Zawbai appeared at the news conference and described to reporters their ordeal.

"Once they knew that I hail from the Sunni Al-Zawbai tribe, they opened a salvo of swear words, beat me, stole my cellular phone and put me along with 10 of my relatives inside a completely sealed container for more than 16 hours."

The Iraqi government acknowledged on July 3 that some of its security elements had tortured prisoners in a bid to curb what it called a rising "Sunni insurgency."

AMS Secretary General Harith Al-Dari said Al-Nour hospital has become "a business center for intelligence agents and militias affiliated to a party in the government coalition."

He charged that they "stop and detain young people on the spot if they hail from Al-Zawbai tribe."

Dari said Iraqis are resolved to kick out the US-led occupation troops no matter how many "honest" Iraqis they lose in the process.

"Kill hundreds, kill thousands, but the Iraqis will remain steadfast in their uphill struggle to liberate their country and teach the outlaws and criminals a lesson," added an outraged Dari.

It was not immediately clear whether Dari was referring to the Badr Organization of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a main player in the United Iraqi Alliance, which won the lion’s share of seats in the 275-member parliament.

Al-Dari had in the past accused the organization, which replaced the officially disbanded militia of the SCIRI, the Badr Brigades, of abducting and assassinating Sunni scholars.

The Badr Brigades spent many years in exile in Iran during Saddam's rule.

Although the Badr Organization maintain to be a political group, many Iraqis believe they are still a militia.

“It is identity killings,” said Delimi.

Adnan Al-Delimi, the chairman of the Sunni Waqfs, condemned the incident, saying it is adding insult to injury.

"It is identity killings," he said bitterly. "At a time when we call for self-restraint, we woke up to this grisly incident."

Delimi said Iraqi security forces are torturing Iraqi prisoners, asking the government to send fact-finding teams to investigate this.

"Go to the headquarters of the border guards in eastern Baghdad and the former headquarters of the military discipline institution in Al-Nosour district and you will see yourself."

The Sunni leader further urged the UN, human rights groups and men of conscience to monitor the "ethnic cleansing" of Sunnis in Iraq, holding the new government of Shiite Ibrahim Al-Jaafari responsible for the safety of civilians.

"It is horrific to see civilians killed by men in police uniform driving police-plated cars," he said.

In May, Iraqi Sunni leaders demanded Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Solagh be sacked for the alleged involvement of his services in anti-Sunni killings.

Also, on Monday, US forces arrested a senior Sunni tribal leader in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Sheikh Talal Abdelkarim Al-Matar, the head of the Samarra tribal council and chief of the Al-Sood, was taken away by US troops from his home in Al-Muatasim, east of Samarra.

The 30,000-strong Al-Sood is one of the most powerful Sunni tribes in Samarra and several of its members have been detained by US troops.

A January 25 report by Human Rights Watch revealed that Iraqis were tortured and abused at the hands of the former US-picked interim government of Iyad Allawi.

It documented how unlawful arrest, long-term incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees - including children - by Iraqi authorities have become routine and commonplace in occupied Iraq.