US probes new Iraq massacre claim

A still from the video footage obtained by the BBC

New footage
The US military has told the BBC it is investigating an incident in which 11 Iraqi civilians may have been deliberately killed by US troops.

Video footage obtained by the BBC appears to challenge the US account of events in the town of Ishaqi in March.

The US said at the time that four people died during a raid, but Iraqi police said 11 were shot by US troops.

The video evidence comes in the wake of the alleged massacre by US marines of up to 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

The troops are also suspected of covering up the deaths in November 2005.

The Haditha incident and several others are being investigated by the Pentagon, according to US military sources.

The US army has also announced that coalition troops in Iraq are to have ethical training following the alleged incident in Haditha.

However, the BBC's Ian Pannell in Baghdad says the move is likely to be greeted with cynicism by many Iraqis, as the troops have long been accused of deliberately targeting civilians.

'Massacre' video

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

The US authorities said they were involved in a firefight after a tip-off that an al-Qaeda supporter was visiting the house.

According to the Americans, the building collapsed under heavy fire killing four people - a suspect, two women and a child.

But a report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.

The video tape obtained by the BBC shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with what our world affairs editor John Simpson says were clearly gunshot wounds.


It has been cross-checked with other images taken at the time of events and is believed to be genuine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5039714.stm

vietnam, anyone?

If Iraq is the new Vietnam, I can't wait to see the Iraqi's Tet Offensive.

Not gonna be pritty.

Well, as gangstakiddie says in another thread "we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here." I bet those 5 year olds were very dangerous. Thank goodness our military is protecting gangstakiddie from them.

I need an emoticon for cry.

What's really scary to me is that I don't think that the US soldiers doing this sort of shit are doing so because they're pure evil, I think they're losing their minds.

I agree. Endless police duty, in a foreign and hostile land can't be good for sanity.

Its sad that 5 year olds play with guns instead of eachother and have such violent minds.

i saw a guy with a "Defending America" t shirt today. it had a big american flag with a streamlined military jet hovering gloriously in the fore..
im so fucking proud of my people....

The Iraqi government has rejected the findings of a US military investigation into the deaths of 11 civilians in the village of Ishaqi, north of Baghdad.

A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said the report, which cleared the US soldiers of wrongdoing, was unfair.

The government will demand an apology and compensation, the spokesman said.

The US said allegations the troops had deliberately killed a family and then covered it up were "absolutely false".

A report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house in Ishaqi, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.

The US military report, issued on Friday evening, said four bodies including that of an insurgent were found after the raid in March and acknowledged there were up to nine "collateral deaths".

However, it concluded the US soldiers had behaved correctly.

The outcome of the Pentagon investigation emerged a day after the BBC released video footage that appears to show the aftermath of US action in Ishaqi, about 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

The video shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with what our world affairs editor John Simpson says were clearly gunshot wounds.

Other inquiries

Other incidents are being investigated by the Pentagon.

One inquiry is looking into an alleged massacre at Haditha last November, in which 24 civilians were killed.

A report in the New York Times newspaper says Marines commanders learned within two days that civilians in Haditha had died from gunfire, but saw no reason to investigate.

It had initially been reported that the 24 civilians had died in a roadside bomb.

The commanders told investigators they had not seen anything usual in the differing accounts of the incident, and that they had no information at the time to suggest any civilians had been killed deliberately, the newspaper reports.

Mr Maliki has said he will ask the US for the investigative files into the incident.

Another Pentagon investigation is looking at an incident in Hamandiya, where an Iraqi man is alleged to have been deliberately killed on 26 April - and that the circumstances were covered up.

Seven Marines and a navy sailor are being held at a military base in California over the killing.

One of their defence lawyers has said they are expected to be charged in relation to the incident, reports say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5044244.stm