(Actual Iraqi police report on an incident that killed 11 civilians including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant.)
Source: Knight Ridder
I guess what works in Vietnam works in Iraq, too.
Someone in the family sees something terrible (like a war crime) or refuses to give up the name of an insurgent--fine then, we open fire.
Just like the massacres of the Vietnam era all over again.
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.
And the classic "deny, deny, deny" response from the pentagon is:
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.
"We're concerned to hear accusations like that, but it's also highly unlikely that they're true," he said. He added that U.S. forces "take every precaution to keep civilians out of harms' way. The loss of innocent life, especially children, is regrettable."
I'm sure that those who love "all things civil rights and war-crimes" like the Pentagon would just come out and admit a war-crime of this level.
They didn't in Vietnam, and they won't now.
It's "fair and balanced" murder in the name of the "war on terror".
(English version of above police report)
POLICE REPORT
This is a translation of the Iraqi police report obtained by Knight Ridder, including accounts of events not related to the Ishaqi raid.
In the name of God, the most merciful
This is the morning and afternoon events of 15/3/2006
1. Interior Ministry Operations:
All forces belonging to the Interior Ministry will go on 100 percent alert status starting Wednesday 15/3/2006 until 1000 hours Friday 17/3/2006.
2. Coordination Center of Beji
At 810 gunmen in a white vehicle, duck type (a reference to the local name for a Toyota model) kidnapped the child Mohamed (Badei Khaled) from Samaha school in Beji (map coordinates 617667).
3. Coordination Center of Dujail
At 730 a benzene truck burned near Gassem al Queisy fuel station after one of its tires caught fire. The incident burned the driver (Hamed Abdalilah) and he was transported to the hospital (map coordinates 263519).
4. Coordination Center of Balad
At 230 of 15/3/2006, according to the telegram (report) of the Ishaqi police directorate, American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Ishaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including 5 children, 4 women and 2 men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals (map coordinates 098702).
They were:
Turkiya Muhammed Ali, 75 years
Faiza Harat Khalaf, 30 years
Faiz Harat Khalaf, 28 years
Um Ahmad, 23 years
Sumaya Abdulrazak, 22 years
Aziz Khalil Jarmoot, 22 years
Hawra Harat Khalaf, 5 years
Asma Yousef Maruf, 5 years
Osama Yousef Maruf, 3 years
Aisha Harat Khalaf, 3 years
Husam Harat Khalaf, 6 months
(Signed)
Staff Colonel
Fadhil Muhammed Khalaf
Assistant Chief of the Joint Coordination Center
3/16/2006
Even the source of this report knows their reporters could be in danger if their
identities were made public.
Three Knight Ridder special correspondents contributed to this report. Their identities are being withheld for security reasons.
Freedom of the press?
How about freedom from tyranny? Or even better, freedom from fears of retribution for telling the truth as the above Knight Ridder disclaimer shows.
Tags: [Knight Ridder], [American troops], [American troops execute whole family, including women and children], [Vietnam 2.0], [Pentagon denies report about executions], ["fair and balanced" murder]
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