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<P align=left><B><FONT size=5>Marines Killed Four Wounded Iraqi Prisoners: US
Reporter</FONT></B><FONT size=3><BR><FONT size=2><A
href="http://207.44.245.159/article7308.htm">http://207.44.245.159/article7308.htm</A></FONT><BR><B>BAGHDAD,
November 17 (<A
href="http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-11/17/article01.shtml">IOL</A>
& News Agencies)</B> – The US pool reporter, who broke to the world the
killing of a wounded, unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a marine, further revealed that
more prisoners were shot dead though they did not appear threatening in any
way.<BR><BR>NBC correspondent Kevin Sites was quoted by the Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, as saying that US Marines killed three more unarmed and
wounded Iraqi prisoners in a Fallujah mosque Saturday, November 12.<BR><BR>He
added the wounded had been left in the mosque for others to pick up and move to
the rear for treatment. No reason was given why that had not
happened.<BR><BR>The shooting in the Fallujah mosque became public Tuesday,
November 16, with <A href="http://207.44.245.159/article7296.htm">the airing of
the footage</A> taken Saturday by Sites.<BR><BR>In his report, Sites said the
man who was killed didn't appear to be armed or threatening in any way, with no
weapons visible in the mosque.<BR><BR>Sites said he saw the marine raise his
rifle and fire point blank at the head of a man, who was slumped against a wall
in a mosque.<BR><BR>US networks and television channels in other countries have
widely shown Sites’ footage, taken Saturday, but halted it in the second before
the shot was fired.<BR><BR>The incident could cause major political problems for
the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his US backers at a time when
Iraqi authorities are seeking to contain a backlash among Sunnis to the Fallujah
offensive.<BR><BR>Rumsfeld in the Dark<BR><BR>The US military promised a
thorough investigation into the incident with the First Marine Division saying
in a statement released in Iraq that the marine “has been withdrawn from the
battlefield pending the results of the investigation.”<BR><BR>The military said
it wanted to determine whether the marine acted in self-defense, violated
military law or failed to comply with the international Law of Armed
Conflict.<BR><BR>“We follow the Law of Armed Conflict and hold ourselves to a
high standard of accountability,” the marine commander in Fallujah, Lieutenant
General John Sattler, said in a statement.<BR><BR>“The facts of this case will
be thoroughly pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of
all persons involved,” he said.<BR><BR>Hawkish Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld, in Ecuador for meetings with his Latin American counterparts, had
little to say about the incident.<BR><BR>“I've not seen that,” said Rumsfeld.
“I've been told that an American general has addressed the subject and any
discussion of what may or may not have taken place which I'm not knowledgeable
about would clearly be handled by the military forces and the leadership there
in Iraq.”<BR><BR>Some 10,000 US marines and army forces, alongside some 2,000
Iraqi national guard soldiers unleashed a long expected onslaught on the
resistance hub on November 8, capping long nights of massive US
raids.<BR><BR>The successive raids have caused massive damage in the city, with
dead bodies still littering the streets.<BR><BR>The current offensive looked set
to come at a heavy price for the US military as at least 39 American troops have
been killed and up to 250 others evacuated to the US military hospital in the
German city of Landstuhl so far, according to US military estimates.<BR><BR>The
US military also said about 1,200 resistance fighters have been killed in the
bloody incursion.<BR><BR>The killing of wounded Iraqi prisoners come as a grim
reminder of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal where US troops harassed, in all forms
and types of the word, Iraqi detainees.<BR><BR>Washington also said it would
investigate the horrible scenes, deemed by law experts as gross human rights
violations, but only few soldiers were sentenced to jail terms and others are
still on trial.<BR><BR>Maysoun Hirmiz, 36, a Christian Iraqi merchant in
Baghdad, told the AP she was not satisfied by an announcement by the US military
that it had removed the Marine from the battlefield and will investigate whether
he acted in self defense.<BR><BR>“They will say or do the same thing they did
with the soldiers who committed the abuses against Iraqis detainees in Abu
Ghraib prison, and they are still free, enjoying their lives while they
destroyed other peoples' lives,” Hirmiz said. <BR><BR>Copyright © 1999-2004
Islam Online</FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>