Editing Badr Organization (section)

=== Post-invasion Iraq ===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Badr Organisation fighters.png|thumb|200px|left|Fighters belonging to Badr Organisation.]] -->

Returning to Iraq following the 2003 US-led invasion, the group changed its name from brigade to organization in response to the attempted voluntary disarming of Iraqi militias by the [[Coalition Provisional Authority]]. It is however widely believed the organization is still active as a militia within the security forces and it has been accused of running a secret prison<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/mideast-crisis-iraq-militias/|title=Torture by Iraqi militias: the report Washington did not want you to see|date=14 Dec 2015|publisher=Reuters}}</ref> and sectarian killings during the [[Sectarian violence in Iraq (2006–2008)|Iraqi Civil War]].<ref name="independent2006" />

Because of their opposition to Saddam Hussein, the Badr Brigade was seen as a U.S. asset in the fight against [[Baathist]] partisans. After the [[Battle of Baghdad (2003)|fall of Baghdad]], Badr forces reportedly joined the newly reconstituted army, police, and the Interior Ministry in significant numbers. The Interior Ministry was controlled by SCIRI, and many Badr members became part of the Interior Ministry-run [[Wolf Brigade (Iraq)|Wolf Brigade]]. The Iraqi Interior Minister, [[Bayan Jabr]], was a former leader of Badr Brigade militia.

In 2006 the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, said that hundreds of Iraqis were being tortured to death or executed by the Interior Ministry under SCIRI's control.<ref name="independent2006">Andrew Buncombe & Patrick Cockburn, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080430151426/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqs-death-squads-on-the-brink-of-civil-war-467784.html "Iraq's death squads: on the brink of civil war,"] ''The Independent'' (Feb. 26, 2006). Retrieved 7 February 2015.</ref> According to a 2006 report by the ''Independent'' newspaper:
<blockquote>"Mr Pace said the Ministry of the Interior was 'acting as a rogue element within the government'. It was controlled by the main Shia party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri); the Interior Minister, [[Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi]], is a former leader of SCIRI's Badr Brigade militia, which was one of the main groups accused of carrying out sectarian killings. Another was the Mahdi Army of the young cleric [[Muqtada al-Sadr]], who is now part of the Shia coalition seeking to form a government after winning the mid-December election.

Many of the 110,000 policemen and police commandos under the ministry's control are suspected of being former members of the Badr Brigade. Not only counterinsurgency units such as the Wolf Brigade, the Scorpions, and the Tigers, but the commandos and even the highway patrol police were accused of acting as [[death squads]] during this period over a decade ago.

The paramilitary commandos, dressed in garish camouflage uniforms and driving around in pick-up trucks, were dreaded in Sunni neighbourhoods. People arrested by them during this period were frequently found dead several days later with their bodies bearing obvious marks of torture."<ref name="independent2006" /></blockquote>