IRAQI pilots who flew in Saddam Hussein’s air force are being targeted by armed militias in an apparent witch-hunt against veterans who fought in the war against Iran two decades ago. According to official military statistics, 182 former pilots and 416 senior military officers had been killed by the beginning of January 2006 as part of the campaign. At least 836 pilots and high-ranking military officials have fled to neighbouring Arab states. Many of the assassinations have been blamed on militias from the Shiite Badr Brigade who were trained and financed by Iran and who now form the backbone of Iraq’s police and special forces. A delegation of more than 1,000 members of the former military elite — mainly from the Sunni minority — appealed recently to President Jalal Talabani to intervene to end the attacks. The officers and their families have accused Iran of inciting Iraq’s Shi’ite militias to carry out acts of vengeance. The organised nature of the attacks has reinforced their claims that elements within the Iranian-backed government are behind the attacks. “Anyone who participated in the former war against Iraq is now a target, not knowing when the death sentence will be carried out against him,” said the brother of Imad Mohammed Marhoon, a pilot assassinated last December. “We cannot escape and we are unable to defend ourselves. We are the walking dead.”