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Ear to the Ground

Two Reports: U.S. Soldiers Killed Many Iraqi Civilians

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Posted on Mar 21, 2006

Two separate claims of American soldiers murdering Iraqi civilians have arisen. One report involves the alleged killing of 15 people, including a 3-year-old girl; the second involves the alleged murder of 11, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant.


AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Residents gave new details Monday about the shootings of civilians in a western Iraqi town, where the U.S. military is investigating allegations of potential misconduct by American troops last November.

The residents said troops entered homes and shot and killed 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

The military, which announced Friday that a dozen Marines are under investigation for possible war crimes in the Nov. 19 incident, said in a statement Monday that a videotape of the aftermath of the shootings in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, was presented in support of the allegations.

Link

Knight Ridder:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi police have accused American troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The villagers were killed after American troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers’ animals and blew up the house, the document said.

A U.S. military spokesman, Major Tim Keefe, said that the U.S. military has no information to support the allegations and that he had not heard of them before a reporter brought them to his attention Sunday.

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By Omar AbdelWahab, March 22, 2006 at 1:19 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

It is amazing that the American army only investigates or hears about such atrocities from the media. IF there is no camera, there is no crime.

What amazes me more, is the justification of Mr. Earl in his comment, for such crime. What in the whole world can justify a killing of a 3 year-old-baby girl or a 75-year old woman? Is being a Muslim Arab Iraqi a crime with a captital punishment? Is it a crime to live nearby a car bomb? Is this the American concept of group punishment? Is it OK for American soldiers to kill civilians but it is a terrorist act if anyone else does it?

Burning down the houses, killing off the animals is a reminder of the Cow Boy heritage that the Americans introduced to the already-troubled Middle East. Another feat that Bush should mention in his many speeches, in addition to ballots and secterian violence.

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By R. A. Earl, March 21, 2006 at 9:09 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Lemme see. You take RAMBO, teach him to kill, arm him to the teeth and set him down in the midst of a country, culture and language about which he knows nothing, under leadership that knows even less, and you’re surprised he creates “casualties?”

Perhaps these particular soldiers were justified in “blowing away” these particular civilians. Perhaps they weren’t. I don’t ever expect to hear the truth from either side about what actually went down.

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By refusedig, March 21, 2006 at 3:55 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If true, then it would appear that Mi Lai kinds of attrocities are endemic to mixing up the U.S. military in these kinds of situations. It will always be this way I think, mostly because civilians are so easily overlooked by the offending country.
Look at this site:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ambush/etc/cron.html

Notice that no mention is made of Somali casualties in the October, 1993 action. About a thousand were killed.

They haven’t made the wisdom that can mix up soldiers and civilians in violent conflict and avoid attocities. It just doesn’t exist, nor will it ever.

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