CPTnet
December 27, 2003
IRAQ: CPTers investigate November 22 killings in Al Jazeera, discover five
more killed by U.S. troops on same night
by Cliff Kindy
On Saturday, December 13, LeAnne Clausen and Cliff Kindy traveled west to
Ramadi to meet with Sa'ad Al Khashab, the director of the local
Organization for Human Rights. They intended to further investigate the
November 22 incident in which US soldiers had killed four of their own by
friendly fire and then turned their guns on three prisoners in the village
of Al Jazeera. (See previous CPTnet release, "U.S. Troops kill four of
their own . . .") Tra'ad Faisal, a neighbor, told them of five more
Iraqis--including his cousin and his brother--that U.S. troops killed the
same night.
Five young men had finished prayers at the mosque located about 500 meters
from the home where the military operation had just ended. They got into
their pickup and headed toward home, away from the operation. A US tank,
from a neighboring house, opened fire on the pickup, killing two passengers
in the bed of the truck and three in the cab. Two children in a nearby
house were also injured. The death certificate of Mahmoud Rabi, one of the
men in the pickup, gave his cause of death as "severe burning."
When it was safe, after the military unit had departed, Faisal was among
the group that took the bodies from the vehicle back to the mosque and then
to the hospital in Ramadi. On the return from the hospital with the bodies
and the death certificates, a military convoy of five tanks met them. The
soldiers halted them, took photos, and then apologized. Locals thought the
convoy was part of the same unit that had carried out the operation.
"On the 24th," Tra'ad continued, "a tank returned to walk over the pickup."
It had been left beside the road after the attack and someone had already
taken pictures of the vehicle. CPTers drove to the police station where
they found and photographed the flattened vehicle behind the building.
Kindy and Clausen visited with members of the five bereaved families and
ate lunch with many of them in a large room at Faisal's house. Each of the
five victims from the pickup was married except one. They ranged in age
from 21 to 33 years. As a result of operation, more than six children were
left fatherless.
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