[Media-watch] 'This one's faking he's dead' He is dead now

[Sigi D]

Dear MW friends
enclosed article from todays Independent about
shooting of wounded men.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=583322
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=583322

'This one's faking he's dead'
'He's dead now'
Fallujah: Video shows US soldier killing wounded
insurgent in cold blood
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington

16 November 2004


The US Marine Corps launched an investigation into
possible war crimes last night after video footage
taken inside a mosque in Fallujah apparently showed a
Marine shooting dead an unarmed Iraqi insurgent who
had been taken prisoner.

The footage showed several Marines with a group of
prisoners who were either lying on the floor or
propped against a wall of the bombed-out building. One
Marine can be heard declaring that one of the
prisoners was faking his injuries.

"He's fucking faking he's dead. He faking he's fucking
dead," says the Marine. At that point a clatter of
gunfire can be heard as one of the Marines shoots the
prisoner. Another voice can then be heard saying:
"He's dead now."

The footage was obtained by a team from the American
NBC network that was embedded with the Marine Corps
during last week's seven-day battle to capture the
city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, which military
commanders say has been a focus of Iraqi resistance.
The film was then pooled and made available to other
media.

On the footage that was broadcast last night, NBC
correspondent Kevin Sites said that the five wounded
Iraqi fighters had been left in the mosque after
Marines had fought their way into that part of the
city on Friday and Saturday. Ten other Iraqis had been
killed in the battle for the mosque. Instead of being
passed to the rear lines for treatment the wounded
Iraqis were left in the mosque until a second group of
Marines entered the building on Saturday, following
reports that the building may have been reoccupied.
Sites said that at this point one of the five Iraqis
was dead and that three of the others appeared to be
close to death.

In his report accompanying the images, Sites said that
one of the Marines noticed that one of the wounded men
was still breathing before shouting that he was
"faking it".

"The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the
man's head. The pictures are too graphic for us to
broadcast," said Sites. He added: "The prisoner did
not appear to be armed or threatening in any way".
Major Doug Powell, a spokesman for the Marine Corps in
Washington, told The Independent: "It's being
investigated - I can't say much more than that. It's
being investigated for possible law of war violations.
A naval criminal investigation team is looking into
it."

The footage - some of the first to show the situation
inside Fallujah and the bloody nature of the
street-by-street battle that has taken place there -
is the latest to emerge from Iraq to contain possible
evidence of war crimes perpetrated by the US military.

Other footage has shown troops shooting wounded
fighters lying in open ground as well as attacks on
Iraqis - some said to be civilians - by US aircraft
and helicopters. This latest footage is among the most
shocking given that it apparently shows without
obstruction the Marine shooting the prisoner in the
head at close range.

Kathy Kelly, a spokeswoman for the peace group Voices
in the Wilderness, said last night that such images
would "recruit more terrorists faster than they are
being killed".

"I don't think the US is paying much attention to the
Geneva Conventions any more - that is the problem.
This must be investigated," she said.

NBC said in its report that the Marine who had shot
the insurgent had apparently been shot in the face the
day before and that one of his comrades had been
killed the previous day by a booby-trap bomb that had
been placed on the body of a dead insurgent. He has
been withdrawn from the field and his unit removed
from the front lines, officials said.

Military experts said last night that rules of
engagement prevented US troops from shooting an enemy
where there was no threat being posed.

Yesterday, the Marines said they had taken more than
1,000 prisoners in the battle for Fallujah. Colonel
Michael Regner, operations officer for the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force at Fallujah, said at least 1,052
prisoners had been captured in the battle. No more
than about two dozen of them were "foreign fighters",
he said. 



	
	
		
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