The interior ministry is also investigating an incident in which an American patrol reportedly caught a death squad red-handed on its way to kill a prisoner.

ECONOMIST: Iraq

Mr Hashemi is accused of running a death squad with his bodyguards which is alleged to have carried out a campaign of political assassinations and bombings at the height of Iraq's insurgency.

BBC: Iraq's Tariq al-Hashemi faces Interpol arrest notice

The aim, according to the U.S. military, was to capture a reputed death squad leader.

NPR: Sadr City Revolves Around Old Ties, Cleric

Police in Brazil are searching for the killers of the former head of a Sao Paulo death squad who was shot a month after being released from a lengthy jail term.

BBC: Rio policemen in the Chatuba community

Mikal Gilmore writes about the horrifying shared childhood that culminated with his brother Gary's death before a Utah firing squad.

ECONOMIST: The silence of the lambs

Collier died a police officer, shot to death in his squad car on the MIT campus.

CNN: Slain MIT cop: 'He was born to be a police officer'

Skipper O'Driscoll joined the Irish camp on Monday, having remained at home after the departure of the larger squad because of the sudden death of a close friend.

BBC: Seven Munster men in Ireland pack

Desertion was also punishable by death by firing squad, but the U.S. Army had not carried out such a sentence since 1864.

CNN: Private Ryan was a hero, but there were bums, too