US soldiers accused of rape, killings

[death of sXe]

July 2, 2006


THE young Iraqi woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time â?? in an insurgent-riddled town when a group of American soldiers happened to pass by on patrol, noticing her.

Then, says a US official, the soldiers returned to rape her and, in an apparent cover-up attempt, she and three members of her family were killed and her body set on fire.
Five US soldiers are being investigated, a US military official said. It is the fifth pending case involving alleged slayings of Iraqi civilians by US troops.

The suspects in the killing, which took place in March, were from the same platoon as two soldiers kidnapped and killed south of Baghdad last month, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The soldiers were abducted by insurgents near Youssifiyah, south-west of Baghdad.

The military has said one and possibly both of the soldiers were tortured and beheaded. The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one member of the platoon to reveal the rape and killing on June 22.

One soldier has been arrested after admitting his role in the alleged attack on the family.

An official said the rape and killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity", noting that the soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.

One of the family members they allegedly killed was a child.

Some of the suspects allegedly burned the woman's body to cover up the attack.

In Baghdad, the US military issued a brief statement, saying only that Major-General James Thurman, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged slaying of a family of four in Mahmoudiya, 30 kilometres south of Baghdad.

The alleged incident was first revealed by a soldier in a routine counselling-type session. The official said that soldier did not witness the incident but heard about it. A second soldier, who also was not involved, said he overhead soldiers conspiring to commit the crimes and later saw bloodstains on their clothes.

Before the soldier disclosed the alleged assault, senior officers had been aware of the family's death but believed it was a result of sectarian violence.

One of the five suspects has already been discharged for unspecified charges unrelated to the killings and is believed to be in the US.

The others have had their weapons taken away and are confined to base.

The rape case is among the most serious against US soldiers allegedly involved in the deaths of Iraqi civilians. At least 14 US troops have been convicted.

Last week, seven marines and one navy medic were charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of an Iraqi man near Fallujah, west of Baghdad. American officials are also investigating allegations that marines killed two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians on November 19 in the western town of Haditha in a revenge attack after a fellow marine died in a roadside bombing.

death of sXe Reviewed by death of sXe on 07-02-2006. US soldiers accused of rape, killings July 2, 2006 THE young Iraqi woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time â?? in an insurgent-riddled town when a group of American soldiers happened to pass by on patrol, noticing her. Then, says a US official, the soldiers returned to rape her and, in an apparent cover-up attempt, she and three members of her family were killed and her body set on fire. Five US soldiers are being investigated, a US military official said. It is the fifth pending case involving alleged slayings of Rating: 5

[Binzhoubum]

Between February and September 1988, 100,000 to 180,000 Kurds died or disappeared. The bombing of the Kurdish village of Halabja with chemical weapons including mustard gas, tabun, sarin and VX on March 16, 1988, which killed 3000 to 5000 civilians, was the most publicised of these atrocities because it occurred near the Iranian border and Iranian troops were able to penetrate with the assistance of Kurds, filming and photographing the victims.

Halabja was not an isolated case however. Saddam used chemical weapons at least 60 times against Kurdish villages during Anfal.

This is bad too...

:smokin:

[Binzhoubum]

Lingering scars

Kurdish survivors recall infamous day 15 years ago

By Marcus Stern
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

March 2, 2003





NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune
Aras Abid Ekrem sat in a cemetery in Halabjah, Iraq, reflecting on the deaths of 23 members of his family killed 15 years ago after Saddam Hussein attacked this Kurdish town in northern Iraq with mustard gas and nerve agents.

HALABJAH, Iraq â?? Aras Abid Ekrem sat by a mound of cemetery grass and a black sign he'd planted. The sign lists the names of 23 members of his family killed 15 years ago after Saddam Hussein attacked this Kurdish town in northern Iraq with mustard gas and nerve agents.
The attack March 16, 1988, has been called the deadliest chemical attack on a civilian population. No one knows the exact totals, but 5,000 were reported dead and another 10,000 injured. Fifteen years later, its legacy includes increased rates of birth defects, cancer, blindness, respiratory illness, infertility and other problems related to DNA damage.


British medical researcher Christine Gosden has compared the long-term medical impact of the attack on Halabjah to the effects seen roughly a mile from where the atomic bombs fell in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A look at this badly scarred Kurdish town's macabre past offers a possible glimpse into the future if war breaks out and Hussein resorts to chemical weapons again. Hussein denies he has such weapons, but Western officials believe he does. This is a main issue that could help trigger a U.S.-led war against Iraq.

Northern Iraq is as unguarded today against an attack as Halabjah was 15 years ago. Kurdish leaders have requested gas masks, protective suits and antidotes from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States. Their pleas and those of Halabjah's residents have gone unanswered.

"We need gas masks; we need help," Ekrem said.

As he spoke Friday, the expansive fields around him were green with spring grass, and miniature daffodils marked the approach of spring. But, as he recounted the events of March 16, 1988, there was a chill in the air. The jagged Suryen Mountains rising behind him were draped in heavy snow.

"There are two pictures in my mind," he said. "One is my dead family and the other is Saddam, alive."

Ekrem was an unmarried 21-year-old when the 1988 attacks occurred. He survived because he was sheltered in a cellar when the bombs fell. Today, he is a 36-year-old husband and father of two. Although he lost almost his entire family in the 1988 attack, he has no idea how he might shield himself or his family from another chemical attack.

If an attack comes, he said, "There is no safety here."

Like others, he expressed hope that initial attacks on Iraqi forces would cripple Hussein's offensive capabilities. Although Halabjah lies south of the 36th parallel, which marks the northern protective "no-fly" zone, no Iraqi warplanes have been seen in the skies here for years.

The attack on Halabjah came during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Three days before the attack, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had launched an attack that took Halabjah from Iraqi forces. On March 15, some of the residents here welcomed the Iranian soldiers as liberating heroes.

On March 16, Iraqi planes began a sustained conventional attack on the town, including napalm, residents said. With the town partly in flames, more warplanes arrived in the late afternoon. The sound of their bombs was different, quieter, witnesses said.

They noticed birds dying. The smell of apples hung in the air. Then their skin began to blister, their eyes began to run and their lungs began to burn. Their faces turned dark. Many died almost instantly. Others ran for nearby mountains that mark the border with Iran.

Corpses littered the sidewalks and streets. They lined the mountain trails.

In the days that followed, some who hadn't been injured in the attack drank from the Milakawi spring. They too died; nerve agents had tainted the spring water.

Some experts, most notably Stephen C. Pelletiere, the CIA's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, are not sure Iraq's chemicals killed Halabjah's Kurds. Pelletiere says Iraq did use chemical weapons against the Iranians who had seized Halabjah, and therefore had bombed the Kurds living there. But he says Iran also used chemical weapons against the Iraqis in the battle over Halabjah and says a classified U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report concluded Iranian gas had killed the Kurds.

Hadi Fettah is part of the Kurdish military force known as the peshmergas, or those who are ready to die. They have attained legendary status in the Kurdish struggle against Hussein.

Like Ekrem, Fettah has family in the cemetery overlooking Halabjah.

He lost his brother in the 1988 attack. He also has a scar as jagged as the nearby mountains just below his neck from contact with the mustard gas. It oozed and bled all night and into the next day as he fled on foot to Iran.

For months, he couldn't move his head because of the pain from the burn. Several surgeries eventually got him on his feet again. But 15 years later, his pockets are stuffed with painkillers because of the ache that runs from his hand to the scar on his neck.

For years he had crying spells. He is so haunted by the images of death that he sometimes still can't sleep for days.

"All of us survivors became a little crazy from what we saw," he said.

On Friday, a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, he scanned the unmarked graves in the cemetery above Halabjah, wondering where his brother might lie.

In the wake of the attack, trucks had hauled bodies from streets and cellars to holes dug by backhoes. The bodies were hurled into mass graves and quickly covered. Unmarked tombstones and grassy mounds are all that mark the location of the remains. Nobody knows for sure even how many are buried here.

Ali Mahmud Muhammed, 59, who runs a produce stand in Halabjah, returned to his home for a quick lunch after Friday's hourlong midday prayers at the mosque.

He recounted that ghastly day 15 years ago when the planes came again in the late afternoon.

"I could smell apples in the air," he said.

When he realized it was a chemical attack, he began running.

"I felt sick and became blinded," Muhammed said.

Eventually, his hands blistering and his eyes watering so heavily he could barely see, he made his way toward the border. He, too, is still haunted by what he did see through eyes that to this day provide only limited vision.

"I walked along the road and saw death on both sides," he said.

The question now is whether others might see it in their future.

BTW I want to make it clear I am not saying what the Americans did isn't wrong...I am simply trying to demonstrate that the ENTIRE world is completely screwed up...why do any of us think we have the moral authority to say what is right or what is wrong?

:smokin:

ALL we can really do to solve these problems is increase the LOVE...

[Shelbay]

That picture is so sad!!!! Why do babies have to die.

[Great Spirit]

This reminds me of the Nazis and how they would rape and pillage after conquering European countries. Fucken wardogs. They will have their karma returned to them indeed.

Amerika the Fallen..the Whore of Babylon!!

[eg420ne]

Nice to have you back Great Spirit:thumbsup: but this time stay a lil longer

[Great Spirit]

Nice to have you back Great Spirit:thumbsup: but this time stay a lil longer

Hey whats up buddy! Ya it has been awhile. A month to be precise. I'll watch my mouth this time! Although I have done it before and was never told about it until "you know who" became a moderator. Lol sounds like Lord Voldemort shit.

[eg420ne]

Hey whats up buddy! Ya it has been awhile. A month to be precise. I'll watch my mouth this time! Although I have done it before and was never told about it until "you know who" became a moderator. Lol sounds like Lord Voldemort shit.

LoL, damn i just had a deja vu moment reading your post....

[Psycho4Bud]

LOL....welcome back G.S......here's an avatar that you may just want to use in the future...LOL

Have a good one!:thumbsup:

[Great Spirit]

LOL....welcome back G.S......here's an avatar that you may just want to use in the future...LOL

Have a good one!:thumbsup:

Hey there Psycho! I can assure you and your viewers that such an act by me will not happen again! Thank you for changing my diapers and setting me on the right path!

And here's an avatar for you my friend!