Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ...
claimed responsibility for the massacre.
Posted on 10/24/2004 8:17:55 PM PDT by restornu
Forty-nine unarmed new Iraqi soldiers were found dead beside a remote road today after being executed by attackers while returning home from their final training course.
Iraq's most feared group, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, later announced in a statement attributed to it on an Islamist website that it carried out the slaughter.
Most of the recruits were found strewn out along the road with a single gunshot to the heads in one of the deadliest attacks against the country's fledgling security forces.
"The bodies of 37 new recruits, some with their hands tied, were found, shot dead, on the side of the road, while the corpses of 12 others were found in a minibus a few metres away that had been burnt out," said a spokesman for the interior ministry, Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman.
"The recruits, who came from all over the southern provinces of Iraq, were mainly Shi'ite and were returning home on board three buses when they were ambushed in Diyala province," he told AFP.
The attack happened yesterday afternoon after the recruits completed a training course on a base outside the town of Mandali in eastern Iraq, Mandali's Iraqi national guard commander Ali al-Kaaki said.
He put the toll at 48, but his figure included five civilians who were drivers.
"This was an execution. We found the dead lying face down by the roadside with a single bullet wound to the head," Kaaki said, adding that the recruits were wearing civilian clothing and were unarmed at the time of the attack.
Two of the minibuses were torched by the assailants and they made away with the remaining vehicles, according to Kaaki, who said five buses had been used.
He said the victims had all their money and personal affairs on them but were missing their shoes.
The Zarqawi group statement said the recruits were heading off on holiday in the south of Iraq when they were ambushed.
"Some children of the The al-Qaeda group of Jihad in the Country of Two Rivers (Iraq) have succeeded in killing 48 corrupt heads, members of ... the Iraqi guard," said the statement, published on the Islamist website (www.ansarnet.ws/vb).
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement.
The Zarqawi group, formerly known as Al-Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), announced its name change on another Islamist website at the weekend, apparently to show its allegiance to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
It was also not possible to verify the origin of that statement.
The lifeless bodies of the cadets were laid out in rows on the ground of a national guard base in Mandali and some of them were badly burnt.
Anger mixed with grief on the faces of the national guardsmen at the base. "This is a massacre, this is terrorism!" screamed one of them, who did not wish to be identified.
A man in a grey disdash (traditional male robe) sobbed and hit his head in anguish as two of his companions carried out the body of his brother from the row of victims and put it in a wooden coffin.
Earlier the police chief for Diyala province said the corpses were discovered on the road between Baladruz and Badra, south of Baquba, a town lying 60 km northeast of the Iraqi capital in an area that is a hotbed of anti-US and anti-government sentiment.
The victims had been returning home to the southern Shi'ite-dominated cities of Amara and Kut after a 20-day training course at a desert camp near the Iranian border, said local council member Khadija Mohammed.
"The bodies were evacuated to a national guard base at Mandali (120 km east of Baquba)," she added.
The US-led military in Iraq has invested much time and money into training Iraq's army, police and national guard, with the ultimate aim of handing back control of security to them and withdrawing from the country.
The recruits were from the Kirkush training base on a windswept desert plain near Mandalai on the country's eastern border with Iran.
The slaughter followed twin suicide car bombings against police and the Iraqi national guard yesterday that killed 20 people.
It also comes after a slew of attacks on the country's security forces aimed at crippling its ability to stand on its feet.
Members of Iraq's security forces are a favourite target in an insurgency that flared up in the aftermath of last year's US-led invasion and which US and Iraqi officials are desperate to crush.
Almost 70 police recruits were killed in one suicide car bomb attack in July in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province.
AFP
Something about it doesn't seem right.
Why not direct radio contact to US forces?
It is too neat.
You know, one day, there are going to be a lot of Iraqi's who are tired of this [censored because I couldn't come up with a mild enough word.] I hope that day comes soon, but I fear it will be only after the day that Saddam is executed for his crimes.
I'm still waiting for Shock and Awe: The Sequel.
They will never admit it, but you no the 'Rats can't wait.
speculation on tv is that it might have been an inside job, i.e. some iraqi national guard and security units are thought to have been infiltrated... this is as cold-blooded as it gets, these terrorists are losing the backing of the people. i imagine we will see more arrests in falluja and elsewhere as everyone doubles their resolve...
OK, where's the subhead?
Should not hurt chances for a Nobel Peace Prize, says Committee spokesman
(steely)
Tehran reportedly used the Mandali-Monthariya border in February 2004 to send into Iraq a significant number of agents to conduct operations and roadside bombings against coalition forces.
FOB Rough Rider
As of April 2004 FOB Rough Rider was soldiered by the 1/150th WV Army National Guard, part of the NC 30th Brigade with the 1st ID.
In early 2004 units of the 105th Combat Engineer Battalion of the North Carolina Army National Guard battalion was spread over four different locations in Iraq. Their missions were mainly basic life support. "Caring for quality of life such as water, housing, dining facilities for troops to mess (eat) in and setting up for long range sustained support. Company B from Hamlet and Laurinburg was located at FOB Rough Rider near the Iraq/Iran border.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/mandali.htm
"Something about it doesn't seem right."
Well we did see the bodies on the street etc.. The poor guys where being watched, probably a informant in the new Iraqi Army. Then word was transfered to Z-man's animals to go after then once they left the compound where they where training. Bingo. We saw the results. Poor guys. Whether they where driven to sign up only for the money or that they really wanted to serve, obviously they never had chance. NOW! How is the IG and their new Army going to repond? I what patiently to see what develops on this one.
It either will stir the NIA to new levels of commitment or, Lord I hope not, bring them to despair. Hopefully with their recent "touching skin" with our Army and Marines, they will take the fight to their enemy. The more horrific attacks against innocent civilians etc., just continue to grate the Iraqi mind in many cases. They will continue to get further pissed off and say more and more that this shit has got to stop, then they get brave and do what they most do! Sad but there is no other way. The NIA must get very tough and go after local and foreign anti-Iraqi elements if they are ever going to form some type of democracy and along with that a stable government and huge reduction in crime and insurgent activities.
I don't understand why they weren't armed, either, but at any rate, it is heart-breaking.
Arrests, hell!
The streets of Fallujah need to run red with blood; unless, of course, you prefer radioactive cinders.
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