Posted on 05/29/2006 8:36:31 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
PHOTOGRAPHS taken by US military intelligence have provided crucial evidence that up to 24 Iraqis were massacred by marines in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha.
One photograph shows an Iraqi mother and young child, kneeling on the floor as if in prayer. They have both been shot dead at close range.
The pictures also show other Iraqi victims, shot execution-style in the head and chest in their ownhomes.
A US government official said the marines involved had "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership".
The killings are emerging as the worst known US atrocity of the Iraq war.
At least seven women and three children were among those killed in the massacre.
Witness accounts obtained by The Sunday Times suggest the number of children killed may be as high as six.
"This one is ugly," a US military official said.
In Britain, the chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, said at the weekend the "appalling" reports of the massacre could undermine British support for the war.
"This sort of accusation does make that harder to achieve," Air Chief Marshal said.
The pictures of the dead, which are being closely guarded by the US military criminal investigation service, were taken by a military photographer who is believed to have arrived on the scene moments after the shootings.
Many US forces are accompanied by photographers to gather intelligence and to shield soldiers from accusations of torture, intimidation and violence.
But the evidence in this case points to a murder rampage by the US marines.
The stain on the US military could prove harder to erase than the photographs of sadistic abuse and torture by US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Comparisons are being made to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, in which US troops slaughtered 500 villagers.
Up to a dozen marines may face criminal charges -- including murder, which carries the death penalty -- dereliction of duty and filing false reports.
Three marine commanders were suspended last month.
With a political storm brewing, the top US marine, General Michael Hagee, flew to Baghdad on Friday to tell his troops they must kill "only when justified".
The naval inquiry is focusing on the actions of a sergeant who may have been the leader of a four-man fire team.
Miguel Terrazas, 20, a lance-corporal from El Paso, Texas, was travelling in a convoy of four Humvees in Haditha just after 7am on November 19 last year when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle, killing him and wounding two others.
The events that followed are the subject of two military inquiries due to report soon: one into the facts of the case, the other into a cover-up.
One witness, Aws Fahmi, heard his neighbour, Yunis Salim Khafif, plead for his life in English, shouting: "I am a friend, I am good."
"But they killed him, his wife and daughters," Fahmi said.
Haditha, about 225km northwest of Baghdad, has long been considered a rebel stronghold. It is among a string of Euphrates Valley towns used by insurgents and foreign fighters to infiltrate from Syria to reach Baghdad and the Sunni heartland.
The Sunday Times, AP
If it is verified that the events occurred as described, then the perpetrators should hang.
What joy.
Now I am sure this rag doesn't have the pictures. So how can they make these statements?
Interesting who gets to be guilty before being proven so.
I wonder how the journalist knows that terrorists did not kill this family.
We can trust the media.
I also wonder what the ethics investigations among Al Qaeda forces are showing?
For that matter, how are the ethics investigations on UN peacekeepers going?
The AP can only hope. BTW, perfect story for Memorial Day.
You read a story like this and your first response is to bitch about the ACLU and the AP? I question your priorities.
The left is SALIVATING over this!! DISGUSTING!!
Not saying it is true or not, but if it is, it was bound to happen. This is what happens when you use men and machines of war to do things other than what they were trained to do. It saddens me as a warrior from that other war we fought with one hand tied behind the back. While I feel bad for the innocents killed I also feel bad for the Marines who were put in the situation. Not justifying it at all. Just feel old, deep, bad feeling.
I am not making a statement before the investigation is to take place. I want to wait for all the facts to come out.
However, this is very troubling and if it is true, this is a huge PR coup in the Muslim World.
If this is true, and like you say..............
I agree.
Odd, a kneeling person if shot would still fall over.
It happens in war, I suppose.
I guess it will not be enough to punish the Marines if they are found guilty ?
Of course the enemy is free to do whatever they want,kill as many as they want, and they are blameless in the eyes of the world?
I pose both things as questions asI do not want to believe this is the way theDemocrats, the world and the media see things
But how do we know that these innocent people weren't shot EXECUTION style by terrorists and then our guys shot and killed the terrorists!!!
This story doesn't smell right.
Okay, so we have a crazed bunch of American Marines shooting and rampaging and things suddenly quiet down "moments" later just in time to allow a photographer to capture the scene?
Sure.
I'll wait for a little more info on this one.
Meanwhile, Islamic fanatics who want us all dead are laughing their asses off all over the world. Ain't that special.
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