Haditha: Massacre and cover-up?

[RSM]

On the day Human Rights Watch publishes a report on the suspected killings of dozens of Iraqi civilians by the American army, our correspondent visits survivors of one the most tragic and disturbing cases.

Only the children's mother, Anwar Jawad, and 14-year-old Hadil survived
To drivers speeding along the main north-south highway through Baghdad, it just looks like a car under a protective cover parked outside a modest house in al-Slaikh district.

It's only on closer inspection that the calamity that occurred in Adil Kawwaz's white Brazilian-built Volkswagen Passat becomes clear.

Adil's brother-in-law Ali Jawad lifts up the blanket to reveal the savage effects of a sustained volley from members of the US Army 1st Armored Division who opened fire without warning on the car on the evening of 7 August.

The bodywork is punctured by more than 20 bullet holes and broken glass fills the inside.

I was happy when the troops came in April and ousted Saddam Hussein, but now I think they are scum

Anwar Jawad
The blood has long dried out, but you can see clearly the dark patches where Adil received his fatal wounds in the driver's seat, and where his daughter Ola, 14, and son Haidar, 19, died where they were seated in the back.

Another daughter, Mirvat, who was 8, died of her wounds - like Adil himself - before being delivered to hospital by the American troops about four hours later.

Only survivors

Opening the boot, Ali brings out a chequered shirt, stiff with dried blood that Adil had been wearing, and Mirvat's tee-shirt, a pattern of cartoon characters and flowers still visible under the dark stains.

On the ledge behind the back seat, a toy nodding dog appears to have had its head blown off by one of the high velocity rounds.

I heard someone shout in English: 'Shoot anything that moves'. They even shot each other. Two of them were laying screaming in the road

Ali Jaburi, witness

Only the children's mother, Anwar Jawad, and another daughter, 14-year-old Hadil, survived the onslaught, which was unleashed on the family after they drove unwittingly up to an American roadblock.

Inside the house, Anwar and Hadil are spending the day at the mother's parents. They live permanently with Adil's family in accordance with the custom here.

Anwar gave birth a week after the shooting and the little baby, Hassan, is held protectively in his grandmother arms. All the women wear black and will continue to do so until a year has passed.

Hadil remains silent during our entire visit, but Anwar retells with great fortitude the terrible events - breaking down only when she comes to the injuries she saw on her youngest daughter.

But there's cold hatred when she alleges that an African American soldier had dragged Hadil from the car by her arm just where it had been cut by shrapnel.


The cartoons on Mirvat's shirt are still visible through the bloodstains

"When you have been through an experience like that the only thing you fear is God Almighty," she says, when I ask whether she is now afraid when she sees US troops.

Although al-Jazeera television is on in the corner of the room, Anwar does not know Human Rights Watch has published its report today in which her story figures prominently.

Nor is she forthcoming about the issue of compensation from the US troops, though media reports and HRW say the family has received $11,000 from 1st Armored Division coffers on the direct orders of Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in Iraq.

What she does say is that the family has never received an apology for the incident and they have been told that coalition soldiers are immune from prosecution in cases like these when civilian deaths occur during military operations.

A lawyer is pursuing the case through the Iraqi courts, however, she says.

Unlit street

The car was hit about a kilometre to the east, as Adil was driving his family back home from a visit to the Jawads two hours before curfew.

Anwar says they only saw the two dark green Humvees blocking the unlit road at the last second and the soldiers opened fire without warning as the white Passat approached. The shooting went on for about 10 minutes, she says.


The car was riddled with bullets by the troops manning the checkpoint

That evening troops also shot dead Saif al-Azawi at almost the same spot, as he and two friends were driving fast through the neighbourhood with the radio blaring.

Saif's body was incinerated as the car he was driving caught fire after being hit.

It all happened just outside the Jabari household. Members of the family talk of a scene of chaos breaking out as the troops were searching a nearby house for weapons.

"The Americans seemed to panic," said Ali Jaburi, who witnessed the events.

"As well as the two cars that were hit, they fired indiscriminately all around them. I heard someone shout in English: 'Shoot anything that moves'. They even shot each other. Two of them were laying screaming in the road," says Ali.

There was no indication anyone else opened fire, he adds.

Contradictory accounts

Ali points out a number of bullet marks on his garden wall, gate, and on the house itself that seem to confirm that troops opened fire in different directions.

But broadly speaking Iraqi eyewitness accounts are at odds with the Coalition's version of events.

A military investigation reported by HRW found that a "regrettable incident" took place in al-Slaikh that evening, but troops "acted within the rules of engagement".

Coalition military spokesmen at the time of the incident said the troops had already come under attack during their operation. There are no reports of friendly fire incidents.

"Only God knows why they opened fire on us like that," says Anwar. "I was happy when the troops came in April and ousted Saddam Hussein, but now I think they are scum."

[Scouse Missionary]

Originally Posted by RSM They even shot each other. Two of them were laying screaming in the road

A very serious subject, but I couldn't help a brief smile at this, it's so quintessentially American.

I suspect incidents like this happen in all wars, given the calibre of people we have in the armed forces. I've met very few forces personnel who were not gung-ho.

[cochcaer]

Should be a war crime but the US wont sign up to the treaty on War Crimes Court. A couple of squaddies will carry the can rather than those commanding them.

[BatChainPuller]

Haditha is an agricultural community of about 90,000 inhabitants on the banks of the Euphrates north-west of Baghdad.

It lies in the huge western province of Anbar, which has been the heartland of the insurgency since US troops led the invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein in 2003.

It is a dangerous place for the US marines who control this part of Iraq and for the inhabitants, caught between insurgents and American troops.


On the morning of 19 November 2005, the Subhani neighbourhood was the scene of an event that has become like the pulse of the insurgency - a roadside bomb targeting a US military patrol.

It killed 20-year-old Lance Corp Miguel (TJ) Terrazas, driving one of four humvee vehicles in the patrol, and injured two other marines.

Haditha map
A simple US military statement hinted at the bloody chain of events which the attack started - though subsequent scrutiny showed it to be far from the truth.

It said: "A US marine and 15 civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb in Haditha.

"Immediately following the bombing, gunmen attacked the convoy with small arms fire. Iraqi army soldiers and marines returned fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding another."

Video footage

The tragedy of Haditha may have been left at that - just another statistic of "war-torn" Iraq, a place too dangerous to be reported properly by journalists, where openness is not in the interests of political and military circles, and the sheer scale of death numbs the senses.

However, a day after the incident, local journalist Taher Thabet got his video camera out and filmed scenes that - whatever they were - were not the aftermath of a roadside bomb.

US marines on patrol in Haditha
Haditha is considered hostile territory for US marines
The bodies of women and children, still in their nightclothes; interior walls and ceilings peppered with bullet holes; bloodstains on the floor.

Mr Thabet's tape prompted an investigation by the Iraqi human rights group Hammurabi, which passed details onto the US weekly magazine Time in January.

Before publishing its account on 19 March, the magazine passed the tape to US military commanders in Baghdad, who initiated a preliminary investigation.

Following their findings, the official version was changed to say that, after the roadside bomb, the 15 civilians had been accidentally shot by marines during a firefight with insurgents.

Nevertheless, on 9 March the top commanders in Baghdad began a criminal investigation, led by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS). Its report is expected within days.

On 7 April three officers in charge of troops in Haditha were also stripped of their command and reassigned.

Pretended to die

Eyewitness accounts suggest that comrades of Lance Corp Terrazas, far from coming under enemy fire, went on the rampage in Haditha after his death.


A US soldier came in and shot at us, I pretended to be dead and he didn't notice me
Safa Younis
Twelve-year-old Safa Younis appears in a Hammurabi video saying she was in one of three houses where troops came in and indiscriminately killed family members.

"They knocked at our front door and my father went to open it. They shot him dead from behind the door and then they shot him again," she says in the video.

"Then one American soldier came in and shot at us all. I pretended to be dead and he didn't notice me."

Hammurabi says eight people died in the house, including Safa's five siblings, aged between 14 and two.

In another house seven people including a child and his 70-year-old grandfather were killed. Four brothers aged 41 to 24 died in a third house. Eyewitnesses said they were forced into a wardrobe and shot.

Outside in the street, US troops are said to have gunned down four students and a taxi driver they had stopped at a roadblock set up after the bombing.

Damage

The Pentagon has said little about the Haditha deaths publicly, and in Iraq the incident has caused little controversy - US troops there are already routinely viewed as trigger happy and indifferent to Iraqi casualties.

But politicians in Washington who have been briefed on the military investigation say it backs the story that marines killed civilians in cold blood.

The chairman of the Senate armed services committee, John Warner, says it will hold hearings into the incident and how it was handled.

Media commentators have spoken of it as "Iraq's My Lai" - a reference to the 1968 massacre of 500 villagers in Vietnam.

Democrat congressman John Murtha, a former marine and war veteran, has said the Haditha incident could turn out to be an even bigger scandal than the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

The Marine Corps has responded to Mr Murtha by saying it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation, but would do so "as soon as the facts are known and decisions on future actions are made".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/5033648.stm

[Kopite]

I'm reminded of the episode of South Park when Jimbo and Ned take the boys hunting (the volcano episode with "Skuzzle-butt").

"He's attacking, shoot Ned."

[RSM]

US soldiers kill two Iraqi women
Car in which Nabiha Nisaif Jassim was killed
The car's driver said he saw no warnings to stop
A pregnant Iraqi woman in labour and her cousin were shot dead by US forces as they rushed to hospital along a closed road, police and relatives say.

US forces said their car "entered a clearly marked prohibited area near coalition troops" in Samarra city and failed to heed warnings to stop.

The driver, who was injured, said he had not seen or heard any warnings.

Earlier, the US military announced all troops in Iraq would be trained in moral and ethical conduct in combat.

It comes in the wake of allegations that US marines deliberately killed more than 20 civilians in the town of Haditha last November.


God take revenge on the Americans... They have no regard for our lives
Khalid Nisaif Jassim

Case study: Civilian deaths

Meanwhile, Iraq's prime minister said he would name his choices for defence and interior ministers on Sunday.

Nouri Maliki said it had been impossible to reach agreement between the different parties on who should fill the posts, so he would put his own choices forward to parliament for a vote.

"Consensus over the names of the heads of interior and defence is impossible, that's why I will present the names directly to parliament," he said.

'Wrong road'

In the shooting incident, which happened on Tuesday but was only fully reported on Thursday, pregnant Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, and her 57-year-old cousin Saliha Mohammed Hassan were killed.

The pregnant woman's brother, who was driving his sister to the maternity hospital, was wounded by broken glass.

Nabiha Nisaif Jassim's mother-in-law mourns her death
Relatives of the victims are in mourning

"I was driving my car at full speed because I did not see any sign or warning from the Americans," Khalid Nisaif Jassim said.

"It was not until they shot the two bullets that killed my sister and cousin that I stopped.

"God take revenge on the Americans and those who brought them here. They have no regard for our lives."

He said attempts to save the baby's life failed.

Local police told AFP news agency: "They took a wrong road just behind the hospital which is now closed because it is next to a military road used by the Americans."

US forces said: "As the vehicle neared the troop location and failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory signals, disabling shots were fired into the vehicle.

"The loss of life in these incidents is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to avoid them," a statement said.

The army said it had received reports from Iraqi police that "one of the females may have been pregnant" and they were investigating.

There were reports of various deadly incidents across Iraq on Thursday.

A barrage of mortar bombs landed in the southern Doura district of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding at least 40.

A bomb killed two Iraqis and wounded another 21, as they milled around hoping for construction work in a central Baghdad square, police said.

[RSM]

This will never cease until the scumbags leave Iraq!

[Elmyn Noos]

Originally Posted by RSM This will never cease until the scumbags leave Iraq!

Difficult job in an extremely tough environment. I'm not going to judge anyone from my comfy chair in front of my PC.

[cochcaer]

Originally Posted by Elmyn Noos Difficult job in an extremely tough environment. I'm not going to judge anyone from my comfy chair in front of my PC.

It's hardly WWI trench warfare, and to a great extent the Americans are bringing about their own downfall. Is this winning hearts and minds? Having lost a soldier in combat doesn't legitimise mowing down a couple of families.

Fact is, Americans make dreadful peacekeepers. It's all those John Wayne films....

[Elmyn Noos]

Originally Posted by cochcaer It's hardly WWI trench warfare, and to a great extent the Americans are bringing about their own downfall. Is this winning hearts and minds? Having lost a soldier in combat doesn't legitimise mowing down a couple of families. Fact is, Americans make dreadful peacekeepers. It's all those John Wayne films....

you been there?

[cochcaer]

Originally Posted by Elmyn Noos you been there?

Nope. And who invited them?

[cochcaer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/5040258.stm

[RSM]

A US military investigation has found there was no misconduct by US troops over Iraqi civilian deaths in the town of Ishaqi, a spokesman says.

Maj Gen William Caldwell said reports that troops "executed" a family during a raid on a house in March and tried to cover it up were "absolutely false".

Questions over the 11 deaths in Ishaqi come amid a Pentagon inquiry into a bigger alleged massacre in Haditha.

The US has announced extra training in moral and ethical values for troops.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has criticised coalition forces for what he describes as habitual attacks against civilians.

News in the US this week has been dominated by discussion of the investigations in Iraq, the BBC's Adam Brookes reports from Washington.

The Bush administration has had an exceptionally difficult time focusing public attention on what it says is the progress being made by the new Iraqi government, our correspondent says.

'Correct procedures'

A report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house in Ishaqi, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.

Footage shows dead at Ishaqi site
The BBC footage from Ishaqi was cross-checked with other images

Maj Gen Caldwell said the US investigation into events in Ishaqi, where the military says it was attempting to capture insurgents, had found no wrongdoing on the part of the troops.

Four bodies including that of an insurgent were found after the raid while up to nine "collateral deaths" resulted from the US raid, according to the investigation.

It added that a precise death toll could not be determined because of collapsed walls and debris.

All the correct procedures were followed when troops came under fire as they approached the house, Maj Gen Caldwell said.

"The investigation revealed the ground force commander, while capturing and killing terrorists, operated in accordance with the rules of engagement governing our combat forces in Iraq," he added.

"Allegations that the troops executed a family living in this safe house, and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false."

The outcome of the Pentagon investigation emerged a day after the BBC released video footage that appears to show the aftermath of US action in Ishaqi, about 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

'Violence commonplace'

The video tape obtained by the BBC shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with what our world affairs editor John Simpson says were clearly gunshot wounds.


HAVE YOUR SAY
When you fight evil it can embrace you
Hiren Dessai, Baroda, India

Send us your comments

The pictures came from a hardline Sunni group opposed to coalition forces.

It has been cross-checked with other images taken at the time of events and is believed to be genuine.

Other probes are being carried out into the alleged massacre at Haditha, and also into claims that an Iraqi man was deliberately killed on 26 April in Hamandiya - and that the circumstances were covered up. Seven marines and a navy sailor are being held over the claims.

The Iraqi government has also launched an investigation into the alleged massacre at Haditha, where eyewitnesses claim US marines shot dead 24 civilians after a roadside bomb attack in November.

Mr Maliki said he would ask the US for the investigative files into the incident.

Violence against civilians was "common among many of the multinational forces", he added.

Many troops had "no respect for citizens, smashing civilian cars and killing on a suspicion or a hunch", he added.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday that 99.9% of US forces conducted "themselves in an exemplary manner".


US rules out any wrongdoing after it own investigations. What a fucking joke.

[BatChainPuller]

Saw an ex- US soldier who had served in Iraq being interviewed, he said it's standard procedure for them to carry shovels and AK47s in the back of their trucks - anyone they shoot 'by mistake' has a shovel and AK planted next to them to appear as though they were planting a roadside bomb.

Thank god the Iraqis are benefiting from the West's moral guidance.