The level of death squad activity in Iraq appears to far outstrip that in El Salvador 20 years ago, from which the so-called "Salvador Option" takes its name. But there was no equivcation about the fact that there was a civil war going on in El Salvador, while everyone seems intent on denying this obvious reality in Iraq. Why is that? From Reuters, Sept. 17:

Baghdad: Iraqi police found 47 more bodies of death squad victims dumped in Baghdad overnight, they said on Saturday, after Washington said it was diverting troops from other parts of Iraq to secure the embattled capital.

The deaths brought the toll from such killings in the capital to nearly 180 in four days.

The US military denied the US media reports that Iraq would dig a giant trench around the city in the next phase of a massive month-old security crackdown, but confirmed access will be tightened by forcing drivers to pass through checkpoints.

The military has acknowledged a "spike" in execution-style sectarian killings in the capital this week, but said violence had been reduced in the scattered neighbourhoods it has targeted in "Operation Together Forward."

Police said most of the victims were bound, tortured and killed. Twenty-six bodies were found in the mainly Sunni western part of the capital with the other 21 found in eastern Baghdad�s predominantly Shiite side.

A suicide car bomber killed one civilian and wounded 22 outside a well-fortified police station in southern Baghdad.

Also in the capital, two Iraqi soldiers were killed by a bomb when they came to recover a corpse from a booby-trapped car.

See our last posts on Iraq and the sectarian cleansing.