The US-led Iraqi torture centers and their police overlords unleashed a deadly sectarian civil war, which claimed tens of thousands of lives. From the summer of 2004 the Special Police Commandos were financed and equipped from a fund controlled by General Petraeus. Ret'd Colonel James Steele and Colonel James Coffman, two special forces veterans were assigned as "advisors" to this force, which eventually numbered over 17,000 men. Colonel James Coffman reported to General Petraeus and described himself in an interview with the US military newspaper as Petraeus' "eyes and ears out on the ground" in Iraq. The Special Police Commandos came to draw most of their recruits from violent Shia militias like the Badr Brigades. The commandos who developed a fearful reputation, particularly in the Sunni community, also became involved in death squad activities.