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." ...

Take No Prisoners

Take No Prisoners: "U.S. Marines execute an Iraqi to the cheers of fellow marines"

More video here: http://www.ndrtv.de/cgi/pan_video/video/vs/20040226_201503_tv_panorama_2020_schuesse.rm

Page Updated: 02/27/04/

Marines 'to face charges over the Haditha massacre'

Telegraph | News | Marines 'to face charges over the Haditha massacre': "By Toby Harnden | (Filed: 21/05/2006)

American military investigators have concluded that United States Marines may have killed up to 24 innocent Iraqis, including seven women and three children, in an alleged massacre, writes Toby Harnden.

Three marine officers whose troops are suspected of involvement in the killings have already been relieved of their commands.

They are believed to be likely to face charges when a separate, criminal, investigation is complete."

Pentagon officials confirmed that 24 civilians, rather than the previous given figure of 15, died in Haditha, in western Iraq, last November when troops from Kilo Company, of the 3rd Bn, 1st Marine Regiment, apparently ran amok after one of their men was killed.

Duncan Hunter, the Republican chairman of the House armed services committee, has said that he will hold public hearings on the incident, which appears to have been covered up initially by those involved.

The Bush administration fears that the growing scandal over the shootings could lead to war crimes trials and a wave of international condemnation that will further diminish support for the Iraq war in the run-up to the mid-term congressional elections.

The congressman John Murtha, an anti-war Democrat who is a former marine colonel and decorated Vietnam veteran, has claimed that innocent civilians were slaughtered "in cold blood". ...

Mosque attack blast kills 79

The Daily Telegraph | Mosque attack blast kills 79: "by Mustafa Ahmed and Jay Deshmukh in Baghdad | April 08, 2006

THREE suicide bombers, two of them disguised as women, killed at least 79 people and wounded 164 as worshippers left a popular Baghdad Shiite mosque after weekly Friday prayers overnight."
...
Mr Saghir's mosque packs thousands of worshippers every Friday. The cleric is known for his fiery sermons promulgating the rights of Iraq's Shiites.

"This is a filthy war against the Shiites," Mr Saghir told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel.

He blamed newspapers close to the ousted Sunni elite for provoking the attack by waging "a campaign defaming our mosque, saying that some Sunnis were detained in the mosque." ...

U.S. Says 9 More Soldiers Killed in Iraq: 1038 Iraqis in Mar, 741-Feb, 608-Jan, 375-Dec ...

Excite News - U.S. Says 9 More Soldiers Killed in Iraq: "Apr 3, 9:52 PM (ET) | By VANESSA ARRINGTON

Nine more American troops died in Iraq, the U.S. military reported Monday, five of them in a vehicle accident in a remote, rain-soaked western area. Their deaths brought the number of service members killed so far this month to 13 - nearly half the number who died in all of March.

Three more Americans - two Marines and a sailor - were missing in the Sunday accident in which a truck overturned near Asad air base, a U.S. statement said. All the dead were Marines, the statement added.
...
Although U.S. casualties have been on the decline, deaths among Iraqis have increased because of rising tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. At least 1,038 Iraqi civilians died last month in war-related violence, according to an Associated Press count.

The AP count showed at least 375 Iraqi civilians killed in December, 608 in January and 741 in February. Most of the increase appeared a result of a sharp rise in the number of civilians found dead throughout Baghdad - apparent victims of sectarian reprisal killings.

Bringing Back the Wounded With Heart, Soul and Surgery - Los Angeles Times

Bringing Back the Wounded With Heart, Soul and Surgery - Los Angeles Times: "By David Zucchino, Times Staff Writer | April 2, 2006"

Injured troops are swept up in a lifesaving process unmatched in past wars -- reaching hospitals in minutes and the U.S. in days. But their agony doesn't end on the battlefield.
...
Despite the destructive force of roadside bombs, the rate of wounded who die is lower in Iraq than for any war in U.S. history. Since the war began three years ago, about 10% of those wounded have died of their injuries, according to the Pentagon, down from 24% during the Vietnam War and 30% during World War II. The highest lethality rate was 42%, during the Revolutionary War.
...
More than 17,000 American troops have been wounded in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

Iraqis killed by US troops ‘on rampage’ ... Claims of atrocities by soldiers mount

Iraqis killed by US troops ‘on rampage’ - Sunday Times - Times Online: "March 26, 2006 | Hala Jaber and Tony Allen-Mills, New York

Claims of atrocities by soldiers mount

THE villagers of Abu Sifa near the Iraqi town of Balad had become used to the sound of explosions at night as American forces searched the area for suspected insurgents. But one night two weeks ago Issa Harat Khalaf heard a different sound that chilled him to the bone.

Khalaf, a 33-year-old security officer guarding oil pipelines, saw a US helicopter land near his home. American soldiers stormed out of the Chinook and advanced on a house owned by Khalaf’s brother Fayez, firing as they went.

Khalaf ran from his own house and hid in a nearby grove of trees. He saw the soldiers enter his brother’s home and then heard the sound of women and children screaming.

“Then there was a lot of machinegun fire,” he said last week. After that there was the most frightening sound of all — silence, followed by explosions as the soldiers left the house.

Once the troops were gone, Khalaf and his fellow villagers began a frantic search through the ruins of his brother’s home. Abu Sifa was about to join a lengthening list of Iraqi communities claiming to have suffered from American atrocities."

The residents said troops entered homes and shot and killed 15 members of two families ... under investigation for possible war crimes

Excite News: "Iraqis Detail Deadly U.S. Marine Raid | Mar 20, 7:48 PM (ET) | By BASSEM MROUE

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - 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.

The charges against the Marines were first brought forward by Time magazine, which reported this week that it obtained a videotape two months ago taken by a Haditha journalism student that shows the dead still in their nightclothes.

The magazine report mirrored what was told independently to The Associated Press by residents who described what happened as "a massacre." However, Time said the available evidence did not prove conclusively that the Marines deliberately killed innocents. ...

[Yesterday] At least 39 people were killed by insurgents and shadowy sectarian gangs ... nearly 1,000 Iraqis dead since the bombing last month

Excite News: "Ongoing Wave of Violence in Iraq Kills 39 | Mar 20, 10:47 PM (ET) | By STEVEN R. HURST

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - At least 39 people were killed by insurgents and shadowy sectarian gangs, police reported Monday - continuing the wave of violence that has left nearly 1,000 Iraqis dead since the bombing last month of a Shiite Muslim shrine.

As the Iraq war entered its fourth year, police found the bodies of at least 15 more people - including that of a 13-year-old girl - dumped in and near Baghdad. The discoveries marked the latest in a string of execution-style killings that have become an almost daily event as Sunni and Shiite extremists settle scores.

Sectarian killings have swept across Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra. An Associated Press tally, including the deaths reported Monday, put the toll at 993 since the golden dome atop the Askariya shrine was left in rubble by two bombers, who are believed to remain at large.

Among those killed in scattered violence Monday were 10 policemen, who are prime targets for insurgents, most of them Sunni militants, trying to break the will of the mainly Shiite police force. ...

killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 200. ... at least 10 more ... and wounded more than 30

Sunday Times: Four men found hanged in slum [ 14mar06 ]: "Four men found hanged in slum | From correspondents in Baghdad | 14mar06

POLICE found four hanged men dangling from electricity pylons in a Baghdad Shiite slum, hours after car bombs and mortars shells ripped through teeming market streets, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 200.

The grim scene underscored fears yesterday's bloody assault on a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr would plunge Iraq into another frenzy of sectarian killing.

Bomb blasts in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Tikrit - many of them targeting Iraqi police patrols - killed at least 10 more people Monday and wounded more than 30." ...

IViolence Unleashed Last Week Killed More Than 1,300 -- three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military

Iraq Death Toll Higher Than First Thought: "Violence Unleashed Last Week Killed More Than 1,300 | By Ellen Knickmeyer and Bassam Sebti | Washington Post Foreign Service | Monday, February 27, 2006; 7:12 PM

BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.

Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- sprawled, blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies had their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr."

Dozens of bodies discovered in Baghdad

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Dozens of bodies discovered in Baghdad: "Staff and agencies | Thursday February 23, 2006

Iraqi police recovered the bodies of dozens of people in Baghdad today as violence spread across the country following the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra.

The bodies were found riddled with bullets as fears grew that the country was sliding into civil war after the attack yesterday which destroyed the golden dome on the al-Askari shrine, one of Shia Islam's most revered sites.

Police and army officials said the bodies of 31 men were found at eight sites in the capital, predominantly in Shia areas. Most had their hands bound, and they had had all been shot.

At least 40 more bodies were found in the village of Nahrawan, south of the capital.

Elsewhere in the country, a bomb targeting an Iraqi army foot patrol killed 12 people and wounded 21 in Baquba, north-east of Baghdad, according to an Iraqi army source.

Four civilians and the colonel commanding the patrol through a busy market in the centre of the city were among the dead.

Earlier, gunmen opened fire on a Sunni mosque in Baquba, killing one person and wounding two. ...

In January more than 800 people — soldiers, security officers and civilians — were killed

31 Days in Iraq - New York Times: "by ADRIANA LINS de ALBUQUERQUE and ALICIA CHENG | Published: February 6, 2006

In January more than 800 people — soldiers, security officers and civilians — were killed as a result of the insurgency in Iraq. While the daily toll is noted in the newspapers and on TV, it is hard for many Americans to see these isolated reports in a broader context. The map, based on data from the American, British and Iraqi governments and news reports, shows the dates, locations and circumstances of deaths for the first month of the year. ..

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/02/06/opinion/Iraq162.jpg

CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have killed 18 people, including women and children

Excite News: "Qaeda No.2 away during attack: Pakistan official | Jan 14, 9:11 AM (ET)

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda's second-in-command, U.S. sources said, but Ayman al-Zawahri was away at the time, according to a senior Pakistani official on Saturday.

The strike on Friday killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and three houses were destroyed in a village near the Afghan border, residents said.

Pakistan condemned the airstrike and would summon the U.S. ambassador to protest the attack, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. He had no information about Zawahri.

CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack on Damadola village, across the border from Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. sources said." ...

Pakistan tribal lawmaker says US plane kills [18] civilians .. no Al Quaida ...

Xinhua - English: "Pakistan tribal lawmaker says US plane kills civilians | www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-13 21:52:32

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A lawmaker from Pakistan Bajur tribal region said on Friday that an American spy plane fired missiles on three civilians' houses, killing 18 people, including women and children.

'A U.S. spy plane have been flying in the Bajur region for three days. The plane did such flight early morning and bombed three houses of locals in the Damadola village, 50 kilometers away from the Pak-Afghan border,' Member of Pakistan's National Assembly from the Bajur tribal region Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid told journalists on phone from Bajur.

Damadola is around 200 km northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

Rashid said that the plane first threw light and then made a circle around the target and fired eight missiles on the houses of three local tribesmen.

A total of 18 people were killed in the attack which carried out at 3 a.m. on Friday, he said. Four other people, including two children, were injured and they are said to be in critical condition.

Rashid said that no al-Qaeda member or foreign citizen among those died.

'It is inhuman act to kill civilians under the excuse of foreign militants,' he said." ...

Mr. Bush is planning to ignore ban on 'cruel, inhuman or degrading' treatment whenever he chooses

Unchecked Abuse: "| Wednesday, January 11, 2006; Page A20 | Washington Post Editorial

CONGRESS VOTED by an overwhelming margin last month to ban all U.S. personnel from inflicting 'cruel, inhuman or degrading' treatment on any prisoner held anywhere by the United States. President Bush, who had threatened to veto the legislation, instead invited its prime sponsor, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), to the White House for a public reconciliation and declared they had a common objective: 'to make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture.' His national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said that 'the legislative agreement that we've worked out with Senator McCain' makes the ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment 'a matter of law that applies worldwide, at home and abroad.'

From all that, it might be concluded that the Bush administration has committed itself to ending the use of practices falling just short of torture that it has used on foreign detainees since 2002. But it has not. Instead, it is explicitly reserving the right to abuse prisoners, while denying them any opportunity to seek redress in court. Having publicly accepted the ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Mr. Bush is planning to ignore it whenever he chooses. As a practical matter, there may be no change in the operations of the CIA's secret prisons, where detainees have been subjected to such practices as painful shackling, mock execution, induced hypothermia and "waterboarding," or simulated drowning. ...

Suicide bombers kill 14 at Iraqi ministry, 22 wounded

Excite News: "Suicide bombers kill 14 at Iraqi ministry | Email this Story | Jan 9, 8:00 AM (ET)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers dressed as senior police officers blew themselves up inside the Interior Ministry compound in Baghdad on Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 22 as Iraq marked National Police Day. ...

Copter crash kills 12; five U.S. Marines slain

Copter crash kills 12; five U.S. Marines slain: "Copter crash kills 12; five U.S. Marines slain | Last update: January 08, 2006 – 10:39 AM

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, killing all 12 Americans believed to be aboard, while five U.S. Marines were slain in separate weekend attacks, the military said today. ...

In other violence Sunday, five people were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad, including a policeman killed by a suicide car bomber that targeted an Interior Ministry patrol. Seven others were wounded. ...

130 Iraqis, 7 U.S. soldiers killed in bombings - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

130 Iraqis, 7 U.S. soldiers killed in bombings - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com : "130 Iraqis, 7 U.S. soldiers killed in bombings | MSNBC News Services | Updated: 8:13 p.m. ET Jan. 5, 2006

One attack near Shiite mosque, another at police recruiting site"

KARBALA, Iraq - In one of the deadliest days in Iraq since the U.S. military overthrew Saddam Hussein, bombs killed at least 130 Iraqis and seven U.S. soldiers on Thursday — shattering hopes that last month’s election and the new year would herald a more peaceful era.

Nearly 200 people were wounded in the attacks on Iraqis in two cities. Another three bombs exploded in Baghdad, two of them detonated by suicide bombers. And insurgents sabotaged an oil pipeline near the northern city of Kirkuk, causing a huge fire ...