BAGHDAD,
November 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rumsfeld
in the Dark
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the marine “has been withdrawn from the battlefield pending the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.”
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.
“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.
“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.
Hawkish
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in Ecuador for meetings with his
Latin American counterparts, had little to say about the incident.
“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.”
 |
|
“We follow the Law of Armed Conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability,” said Sattler (AFP)
|
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.
The
successive raids have caused massive damage in the city, with dead
bodies still littering the streets.
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.
The
US military also said about 1,200 resistance fighters have been killed
in the bloody incursion.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
