Soldier Who Killed Handcuffed Iraqi Is Freed

Dayton Paper: Soldier Who Killed Handcuffed Iraqi Is Freed: " Handcuffed Iraqi Is Freed | By E&P Staff | Published: June 25, 2006 12:30 AM ET

NEW YORK An American soldier convicted in the fatal shooting of a handcuffed Iraqi cow herder in 2004 was freed from a military prison in Oklahoma on Friday, more than a year before his sentence was up, the Dayton Daily News reported today.

Army Spec. Edward Richmond Jr., 22, of Gonzales, La., was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced in August 2004 to three years in prison for the April 28, 2004, shooting death of Muhamad Husain Kadir in the village of Taal Al Jal, which is about 40 miles southwest of Kirkuk." ...

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "June 03, 2006 | From Tim Reid in Washington and Ned Parker in Baghdad

PRESIDENT BUSH faced a growing crisis over the conduct of American troops in Iraq yesterday after it emerged that at least three alleged atrocities were being investigated.

With US commanders still struggling to contain the fallout from the alleged al-Haditha massacre, the US military was faced with claims that American soldiers rounded up and shot 11 unarmed civilians, including five children — one only six months old — and four women, in the town of Ishaqi in March.

It also emerged that murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges are likely to be brought imminently against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman for killing an Iraqi civilian near Baghdad on April 26. They are being held in solitary confinement at Camp Pendelton Marine Corps base in California.

The Iraqi civilian that they killed was allegedly dragged from his home and shot. The troops are alleged to have planted a shovel and an AK-47 rifle next to his body to make it appear as if he was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb. ...

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "June 03, 2006 | From Tim Reid in Washington and Ned Parker in Baghdad

PRESIDENT BUSH faced a growing crisis over the conduct of American troops in Iraq yesterday after it emerged that at least three alleged atrocities were being investigated.

With US commanders still struggling to contain the fallout from the alleged al-Haditha massacre, the US military was faced with claims that American soldiers rounded up and shot 11 unarmed civilians, including five children — one only six months old — and four women, in the town of Ishaqi in March.

It also emerged that murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges are likely to be brought imminently against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman for killing an Iraqi civilian near Baghdad on April 26. They are being held in solitary confinement at Camp Pendelton Marine Corps base in California.

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "June 03, 2006 | From Tim Reid in Washington and Ned Parker in Baghdad

PRESIDENT BUSH faced a growing crisis over the conduct of American troops in Iraq yesterday after it emerged that at least three alleged atrocities were being investigated.

With US commanders still struggling to contain the fallout from the alleged al-Haditha massacre, the US military was faced with claims that American soldiers rounded up and shot 11 unarmed civilians, including five children — one only six months old — and four women, in the town of Ishaqi in March.

It also emerged that murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges are likely to be brought imminently against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman for killing an Iraqi civilian near Baghdad on April 26. They are being held in solitary confinement at Camp Pendelton Marine Corps base in California.

The Iraqi civilian that they killed was allegedly dragged from his home and shot. The troops are alleged to have planted a shovel and an AK-47 rifle next to his body to make it appear as if he was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb. ...

ABC News: Victim's Brother Speaks: New Evidence Undermines U.S. Iraq Claims

ABC News: Victim's Brother Speaks: New Evidence Undermines U.S. Iraq Claims:

June 5, 2006 — New evidence may suggest cover-ups in two separate incidents at the center of a simmering scandal over Iraqi civilian deaths at the hands of American forces.

Iraqi anger is percolating over the incidents, and over an investigation that cleared U.S. forces in a third case.

A brother of a victim, Hashim Ibrahim Awad Abass, in Al Hamadania, Iraq, told ABC News today that Marines killed his brother needlessly.

According to the victim's brother, Marines came to his family's village at 2 a.m. on April 25 and first raided a home, where they discovered a shovel and an AK-47. They then went to his brother's house, dragged him into the street, arrested him and took him away. A little while later, Abass' brother heard gunfire outside the village.

Waking up at the crack of dawn, he rushed to the police department to report his brother missing. Abass told ABC News the police informed him that a body had been dropped off earlier by the Americans and that he should go and have a look. It was his brother, he said.

Later that day, Marines came to the family home and dropped off the incident report.

ABC News obtained a copy of the death report, which is written in Arabic on one side and English on the other. "We spotted a man digging on the side of the road from our ambush site," reads the statement. "I made the call and engaged. He was pronounced dead at the scene with only a shovel and AK-47," according to the statement.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins, with another Marine acting as a witness, signed the death report.

Eight Marines could face murder charges in the death of Abass, and other charges for possibly attempting to cover up the killing.

Residents told ABC News over the weekend that a Marine sergeant had lied on an official report about the death of a civilian, saying the man appeared to be planting a bomb. But several Marines have confessed to dragging the man from his house, shooting him and putting a shovel and weapon next to his body. ...

Killing of Iraqi may have been 'premeditated' - [by marines]

CNN.com - Source: Killing of Iraqi may have been 'premeditated' - Jun 6, 2006: "From Jamie McIntyre | CNN | Tuesday, June 6, 2006; Posted: 10:40 a.m. EDT (14:40 GMT)"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Navy investigators have evidence that U.S. Marines may have committed "premeditated" murder in the April shooting death of an unarmed Iraqi man in Hamdaniya, a military officer close to the inquiry told CNN.

The incident is unrelated to a criminal investigation into the alleged massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November.

In the Hamdaniya incident, some of the Marines in pretrial confinement have admitted the circumstances of the man's death were staged, said the officer.

Their statements form part of the evidence suggesting Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, murdered the man, the source said.

"They went after someone, not necessarily this person, but they set out to get someone," the officer told CNN, referring to the Marines now under investigation.

The officer spoke to CNN under the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the case publicly. ...

Envoy accuses US of murder

Envoy accuses US of murder: "Envoy accuses US of murder | By AFP |

05/31/06 'Herald Sun' -- -- IRAQ'S new ambassador to the US said yesterday US forces cold-bloodedly shot and killed his cousin last year in Haditha.

It is the same town where marines are alleged to have gone on a rampage, killing 24 civilians.
Samir Shakir al-Sumaidaie's accusations -- aired just hours after President George Bush welcomed him at the White House -- came as the US military faced growing pressure to complete its investigation into the Haditha deaths.

Ambassador Samir al-Sumaidaie said his relative was shot dead five months before the November killing of 24 civilians.

The ambassador said Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, a bookish 21-year-old engineering student, was killed after opening the door of the family house to US marines on June 25.

'I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe he was killed unnecessarily,' Mr al-Sumaidaie said.

'The marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them. His mother, his siblings were there.

'He let them into the bedroom of his father, and there he was shot.' " ...

US troops shot 3 Afghans in crowd: police chief - PakTribune

US troops shot 3 Afghans in crowd: police chief - PakTribune: "Friday June 02, 2006 (0023 PST)

KABUL: U.S. troops fired into a crowd of hundreds of stone-throwing rioters, killing at least three Afghans, as their convoy left the scene of an accident that triggered Monday’s anti-American riots, Kabul’s chief of highway police said.

General Amanullah Gozar told Reuters on Thursday he had witnessed the entire incident, from the point when a U.S. military truck ran out of control down a hill, crashing into vehicles and killing at least five people, to the clashes afterwards, when U.S. troops opened fire.

"As a result of their firing, one young boy and two other people were killed," Gozar said.

The U.S. military says small arms fire was heard coming from the crowd, and the crowd overpowered a police line formed to protect the convoy as they tended to injured and collected the damaged vehicle before withdrawing.

"Our soldiers thought they were being fired on from the crowd and they fired their weapons in self defense," said Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, a spokeswoman at the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Kabul. She said an investigation was still in its early stages. ...

U.S. Conducts Three More Probes Into Military's Conduct in Iraq

U.S. Conducts Three More Probes Into Military's Conduct in Iraq: "By Alex Morales

06/01/06 -- (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. military, facing allegations that Marines killed civilians in November in western Iraq, is conducting at least three more probes into the conduct of its forces in Iraq, spokesman Major-General William Caldwell said.

The military began a criminal investigation into the Nov. 19 deaths of 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha, west of Baghdad, following a March 27 report by Time Magazine that Marines killed unarmed Iraqis.

``There are three or four at least at this time,'' Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad in response to a question about how many other such incidents were under investigation. Caldwell didn't have any details of those probes, and didn't know their status, beyond that they're in ``the first stages,'' he told a news conference carried live on the Pentagon Web site. "

Iraq War Vets talk about random civilian killings

Iraq War Vets talk about random civilian killings: "Iraq War Vets talk about random civilian killings

Newsnight follow a group of former US soldiers who have returned from Iraq deeply affected by the experience. As they march across America to protest, shocking interviews emerge on the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians.

Veterans reveal they had been trained to see Iraqis as animals, shoot up the landscape and kill anything that moved. Shovels and guns were carried by patrols in order to give the false impression that innocent killed civilians were actually up to no good - supposedly killed whilst digging holes for IED's.

Inigo Gilmore for BBC - Excerpted from Newsnight - Runtime 6 Minutes 23 Seconds

Click here to watch the full length BBC program Windows Media

Click here for full program."

New 'Iraq massacre' tape emerges ...video pictures obtained by the BBC appear to contradict the US account

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | New 'Iraq massacre' tape emerges: "

The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians.

The video appears to challenge the US military's account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.

The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people.

A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way.

The new evidence comes in the wake of the alleged massacre in Haditha, where US marines are suspected of killing up to 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005 and covering up the deaths.
...
The news of ethical training for US-led troops is likely to be greeted with cynicism by many Iraqis, the BBC's Ian Pannell in Baghdad says, as the troops have long been accused of deliberately targeting civilians.

Cross-checked

The video pictures obtained by the BBC appear to contradict the US account of the events in Ishaqi, about 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on 15 March 2006. ...

U.S. troops kill pregnant woman in Iraq - Yahoo! News

U.S. troops kill pregnant woman in Iraq - Yahoo! News: " By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer Wed May 31, 2:31 PM ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday.

Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday.

Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses.

The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at a car after it entered a clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings.

"Shots were fired to disable the vehicle," the military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant."

Jassim's brother, who was wounded by broken glass, said he did not see any warnings as he sped his sister to the hospital. Her husband was waiting for her there.

"I was driving my car at full speed because I did not see any sign or warning from the Americans. It was not until they shot the two bullets that killed my sister and cousin that I stopped," he said. "God take revenge on the Americans and those who brought them here. They have no regard for our lives." ...