Iraq's police, completely reformed after the 2003 US-led invasion, on Sunday apologised for acts committed during the rule of the dictator Saddam Hussein, on the eve of the force's 90th anniversary.
The statement came as Iraq grapples with a festering political row that has pitted the Shiite-led government against the main Sunni-backed bloc, raising sectarian tensions as minority groups have warned of the politicisation of the security forces.
"Security forces in the interior ministry apologise for the practices that took place during the former regime," the ministry said in a statement.
"They were forced to carry out practices that were not their duties."
It went on to say that the fledgling force, which has been rebuilt from the ground up in the past eight-plus years, were "the sons of the nation, carrying out their duties in order to implement the law and justice."
The statement came on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the police's 1922 founding, two years after Britain created the country under a League of Nations mandate, but a decade before it became fully independent.
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