Death squad

A death squad is an armed group that conducts extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances of persons for the purposes such as political repression, assassinations, torture, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. These killings are often conducted in ways meant to ensure the secrecy of the killers' identities.

Death squads may have the support of domestic or foreign governments (see state terrorism). They may comprise a secret police force, paramilitary militia groups, government soldiers, policemen, or combinations thereof. They may also be organized as vigilantes. When death squads are not controlled by the state, they may consist of insurgent forces or organized crime, such as the ones used by cartels.

List of notable death squads

 * Al-Badr (Pakistan)
 * Arrow Cross Party (Hungary)
 * Atlacatl Battalion (El Salvador)
 * Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Argentina)
 * Batallón Vasco Español (Spain)
 * Battalion 316 (Honduras)
 * Black Hundreds (Russian Empire)
 * Caravan of Death (Chile)
 * Civil Cooperation Bureau (South Africa)
 * Davao Death Squad (The Philippines)
 * Einsatzgruppen (Nazi Germany)
 * Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haïti (Haiti)
 * GAL (Spain)
 * Grey Wolves (Turkey)
 * Grupo Colina (Peru)
 * Impuzamugambi (Rwanda)
 * Interahamwe (Rwanda)
 * Irish Republican Army (Ireland)
 * Iron Guard (Romania)
 * Janjaweed (Sudan)
 * Khmer Rouge (Cambodia)
 * Ku Klux Klan (United States)
 * Quantrill's Raiders (United States)
 * Rapid Action Battalion (Bangladesh)
 * SAVAK (Iran)
 * Scorpions (Yugoslavia)
 * Sombra Negra (El Salvador)
 * Tiger Squad (Saudi Arabia)
 * Tonton Macoute (Haiti)
 * United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Colombia)