Iraqis Drag Four Corpses Through Streets

AP ^ | March 31, 2004 | SAMEER N. YACOUB

[Charles Henrickson]

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Jubilant residents dragged the charred corpses of four foreigners — one a woman, at least one an American — through the streets Wednesday and hanged them from the bridge spanning the Euphrates River. Five American soldiers died in a roadside bombing nearby.

The four foreigners were killed in a rebel ambush of their SUVs in Fallujah, a Sunni Triangle city about 35 miles west of Baghdad and scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the American occupation a year ago.

It was reminiscent of the 1993 scene in Somalia, when a mob dragged the corpse of a U.S. soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American withdrawal from the African nation.

In one of the bloodiest days for the U.S. military this year, five 1st Infantry Division soldiers died when their military vehicle ran over a bomb in a separate incident 12 miles to the northwest, among the reed-lined roads running through some of Iraq's richest farmland.

Residents said the bomb attack occurred in Malahma, 12 miles northwest of Fallujah, where anti-U.S. insurgents are active. U.S. Marines operate in the area, but it was unclear whether the slain troops were Marines.

Chanting "Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans," residents cheered after the grisly assault on two four-wheel-drive civilian vehicles, which left both in flames. Others chanted, "We sacrifice our blood and souls for Islam."

Associated Press Television News pictures showed one man beating a charred corpse with a metal pole. Others tied a yellow rope to a body, hooked it to a car and dragged it down the main street of town. Two blackened and mangled corpses were hung from a green iron bridge across the Euphrates.

"The people of Fallujah hanged some of the bodies on the old bridge like slaughtered sheep," resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Some of the corpses were dismembered, he said.

Beneath the bodies, a man held a printed sign with a skull and crossbones and the phrase "Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans."

APTN showed the charred remains of three slain men. Some were wearing flak jackets, said resident Safa Mohammedi.

One resident displayed what appeared to be dog tags taken from one body. Residents also said there were weapons in the targeted cars. APTN showed one American passport near a body and a U.S. Department of Defense identification card belonging to another man.

U.S. military officials in Washington said the situation was still confused but they did not think the victims were American soldiers and believed the SUVs were not American military vehicles.

Witnesses said the two vehicles were attacked with small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.

Hours after the attack, the city was quiet. No U.S. troops or Iraqi police were seen in the area.

Fallujah is in the so-called Sunni Triangle, where support for Saddam Hussein was strong and rebels often carry out attacks against American forces.

In nearby Ramadi, insurgents threw a grenade at a government building and Iraqi security forces returned fire Wednesday, witnesses said. It was not clear if there were casualties.

Also in Ramadi, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy, witnesses said. U.S. officials in Baghdad could not confirm the attack.

On Tuesday in Ramadi, one U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a roadside bombing, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

Northeast of Baghdad, in the city of Baqouba on Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew up explosives in his car when he was near a convoy of government vehicles, wounding 14 Iraqis and killing himself, officials said.

The attacked convoy is normally used to transport the Diala provincial governor, Abdullah al-Joubori, but he was elsewhere at the time, said police Col. Ali Hossein.

On Tuesday, a suicide bombing outside the house of a police chief in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed the attacker and wounded seven others.

A bomb exploded late Tuesday in a movie theater that had closed for the night. Two bystanders were wounded by flying glass, said its owner, Ghani Mohammed.

The latest violence came two days after Carina Perelli, the head of a U.N. electoral team, said better security is vital if Iraq wants to hold elections by a Jan. 31 deadline. The polls are scheduled to follow a June 30 transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.

Top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said Tuesday he had appointed 21 anti-corruption inspectors general to government departments to try to prevent fraud. More will be named in coming days, he said.

The inspectors will work with two other newly formed, independent agencies. Together, they will "form an integrated approach intended to combat corruption at every level of government across the country," Bremer said.

[TXBSAFH]

I beg to differ, just nuke the anumals and then spread pig ofal on the site.

[El Gato]

the Germans and the Japanese after world war II. did it ever appear that they could be "civilized"? the japanese treatment of US prisoners, and those conducted in china, were horrible.

And not a few responsible Japanese were hung or shot. That tended to focus the attention of the rest on the error of their ways and on what they tolerated.

[claudiustg]

---Get rid of Fallujah, and you'll have another city rioting, to which "Remember Fallujah" will have the same effect as "Remember the Alamo".---

And our enemies on the left would get more ammunition. I suggest just quietly bypassing Fallujah, when for any aid or improvement. Let the Iraqis then deal with their own ghetto town in their own fashion.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I figured since you don't understand everything you read I would post you a picture, and I was right you understood that one.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I noted you failed to answer this question.

"When these Iraqi civilians were brutally mutilating our people in the streets, in *broad day light* where were all these Iraqi civilians that are suppose to be our friends?"

[CatoRenasci]

Your allusion to the behavior of the Native American resistance to White occupation reminds me why so many 19th century Americans agreed with General Phillip Sheridan that the only good Indians I ever saw were dead!

[pctech]

What we need is to send in some NYC or New Orleans cops to break a few heads.

I got a better idea. Everyone that is on death row in the US on charges of murder be let loose in the streets of these cities. Give them all the ammunition they could possibly need and let them have some fun. If they survive they be granted full-pardons and allowed to reside in the foreign city of their choice.

BTW, wasn't there a movie patterned after this???

[Charles Henrickson]

Here's where you can click on the AP video:

Video: Foreign Nationals Killed in Fallujah

[No Blue States]

Good question, I would like to see them stand up more also.

Knowing they cant save a dead person maybe they were cowering in fear to avoid getting mutilated themselves, while hoping our troops, or the Iraqi police get there soon to restore order.

I would like to get the innocent out of the sunni triangle and carpet bomb it with moabs.

[txhurl]

Oh, no. Indians mutilated each other long, long before the white man showed up.

The white man was just easier to capture.

[arbee4bush]

Your post is about the most calm and rational I've noticed on this thread. Thank you.
I see alot of hysteria here...and it's the exact reaction the terrorists are hoping for. We can't pull out. We must realize this was in the Sunni Triangle which is still festering bad. It didnt happen in every city in the whole country. We know the AQ insurgents are very well entrenched in these areas and have the ear and heart of the Sadaam loyalists. And they used that advantage on us today in a very calculated and deadly way. We will respond....in the a cool, calm and deadly manner.

[Bon mots]

I've been flamed for saying this time and again, but it's coming to this:

Until we strike terror in their hearts, they will never respect us. It is better to be feared than to be loved.
It will take about 20 or so to tame Islam. Maybe more.
Nothing has worked for 700 years. Nothing else will.

[rickylc]

Well, their barbaric tactics have worked on you then.

Perhaps if they drag a few more bodies we will cut and run and they can go back to brutalizing themselves, eh?

[Gunrunner2]

But we all know this didn’t happen!! It was all staged!
It was all made-up!

From THE premier site dedicated to anti-Americanism in Iraq:
http://www.casi.org.uk/analysis/2004/msg00193.html. These nut-burgers really don't have a clue. Oh, and by the way, they also deny the mass graves. Be sure to have your meds ready to keep your BP down.


Here is what they say:
“Amazing rubbish. Watching the footage supplied by Reuters TV on the web (try their website) it is very clear, although edited that the TV camera was present from the very beginning of the incident.

This picture
http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20040331/i/r3730998517.jpg
Appears to be have been taken very soon after the vehicle was set alight, the TV footage shows molotovs being thrown. Given that Falluja is some distance from Baghdad and that traffic is heavy and slow its impossible to see how media could be present to witness the drama, even if they set out immediately it began. This was a staged event. The street is deserted on both sides of the road, suggesting it has been sealed off. Normally Iraqi streets I have seen are choked with traffic. There is only one person visible in the photo, noone appears to have escaped, although the doors of the Pajero are open.

Claims that there is footage of a US passport lying beside one of the charred bodies (I havent manage to confirm if the footage does exist) just confirms my belief this was a simulation. US passports dont conveniently drop out of the pockets to await news media photographs.

In this photo (supposedly of Iraqi men mutilating a charred body - which, of course, is exactly what Iraqi men love to do in their spare time)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040331/photos_wl_me_afp/040331102136_adnw2aqk_photo0
Is such a static and staged event. There is absolutely no motion or emotion detectable in the crowd, with three men bend down in unison proding a charred something - most unlikely to be a human corpse.

The claims of inhuman Iraqi brutality and mutilation are lies and dark hideously racist lies. This is not the way Arabs or Iraqis behave.

This is a phony war, solely to justify continual Occupation presence.

This makes the Nazi and Soviet Information ministries look like models truth and fairness.”

I know there is little point in saying this.

Tom Young"

[El Gato]

When these Iraqi civilians were brutally mutilating our people in the streets, in *broad day light* where were all these Iraqi civilians that are suppose to be our friends?

Obviously not in Fallujah, or if they are, they were smart enough not to get on the bad side of that mob. But Fallujah is not all of Iraq. But then again, Fallujah should no longer be, period.

[Eagle Eye]

5x5 Lima Charlie

Wish I could find something humorous to say, but after seeing those pictures I am void of humor toward them. Well, I'll be in the neighborhood in a week or so on routine business. EnShallah.

[CatoRenasci]

I understand. The Iraqis apparently did, too. It's immaterial whether Native American behavior towards whites was especially for whites, or reflected their treatment of each other: noble savages they were not! Sheridan was simply expressing the Zeitgeist in his famous speech at Ft. Union, Arkansas in 1869.

[myheroesareDeadandRegistered]

One up side to the photos is that there are a lot of clear images of these goons that did the deed.

Hope somebody in the military is making another deck of picture playing cards for the next trip through there.

[pctech]

This is why there will NEVER be peace in Iraq or in ANY Muslim country. They are savages, and we need to kill every last one of them. God forgive me for the way I feel. I've NEVER hated anyone in my life...until now.

You are absolutely right. Contrary to what our president says, ISLAM IS NOT THE RELIGION OF PEACE!!!!! (Hey GWB, I hope you saw that) They are nothing but blood-thirsty savages and we ought to be dropping napalm, MOABs, nukes, whatever it takes to exterminate the earth of them. Islam has caused nothing but grief and loss of life, and if I didn't have any kids or other worries, I'd be boarding the next plane, boat, whatever it would take, to go over there and, well, you get the idea. I'd volunteer to establish order over there!!!!

[Eagle Eye]

Hey! I'm a civilian in Iraq. I also sometimes work in Fallujah and other places west of Baghdad. I don't mind anyone praying for me. In fact, I rather ENCOURAGE it!