Haditha Killings are Tip of the Iceberg

Last November US Marines intentionally killed 24 civilians in Iraq’s western town of Haditha. This, plus another killing in April, are—finally—making its way to the mainstream news in the US and a Congressional and military investigation are underway.

But, the investigation should expand. Though rarely reported in the mainstream media, independent news sources and human rights groups have documented hundreds of Iraqi civilian deaths by US forces that were either indiscriminate or intentional.

As early as October 2003, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the report "Hearts and Minds: Postwar Civilian Casualties in Baghdad by US Forces” in which they collected information on 94 civilian deaths in Baghdad. The group then investigated two of five civilian deaths the US military had also investigated and had concluded the soldiers acted “within the rules of engagement.” HRW found, however, that troops had used excessive force, in one case shooting a man whose hands were clearly raised.

In the same month Amnesty International called on the US government to take responsibility for tracking and investigating civilian deaths, countering General Tommy Franks infamous response “we don’t do body counts” to the question of civilian deaths.

Since the beginning of the US-led invasion Voices in the Wilderness and the Christian Peacemakers Team, both of which maintained houses in Baghdad, have also documented hundreds of civilian deaths. In August 2003, for example, VITW documented the deaths of a father and three of his children when troops shot at the whole family. They were thrown out of a press conference for asking General Sanchez about the deaths.

In both US sieges on Fallujah several eyewitness survivors told horror stories of US military personnel killing civilians. These accounts were related in numerous outlets, often by independent journalists, but also by the Associated Press, BBC, and Al-Jazeera, to name a few. Whole families were shot dead while sleeping in their beds. US snipers were found to have shot and killed children—one young boy, whose photograph has traversed the globe, lays dead still clutching a white flag of surrender. Ambulances were targeted.

While interviewing an Iraqi doctor last summer about the US-led five-day seige on Haditha's hospital in May, he said witnesses reported US troops had shot a patient dead as he lay in his hospital bed.

These are not isolated instances. Similar reports have come out of Baquba, Mosul, Karbala, Al-Qaim, and Rawa, to name a few.

At the beginning of this month, troops responded to an IED, which targeted a US convoy in Samarra, by sealing off the neighborhood. House raids followed. In one, a family were huddled together, frightened, in one room when US troops burst through the front door shooting. According to one of the surviving witnesses, who is too terrified for her safety to use even her first name, most of the people in the room were women and children. The first casualty of the indiscriminate shooting was a man of 40 who died when he wrapped his body around his father’s to protect him. The woman’s 18-month old son was in the arms of her sister.

“After the shooting, there was a terrible silence. I thought they had killed my father.” Her 20-year old sister, who had been studying for her final exams, was slumped against the wall, still holding the child. ““I tried to touch her shoulder and my son’s clothes were filled by blood. Then I realized she was dead. I tried to talk to my mother, ‘why are you laying down like this?’ When I tried to make her sit up I saw something white hanging from her. It was one of her eyes. The other eye was stuck to the wall.”

After the three were killed, soldiers took pictures of them with a digital camera, but not before dragging the 40-year old into the corridor, the witness says, and placing a gun next to his legs.

This is the second account I’ve heard of US troops placing a gun next to someone they’ve killed. This implies the soldiers knew not only that they had killed a civilian, but also that they were attempting to cover their tracks.

If Congress and military officials are serious about investigating what Rep. John Murtha has deemed killing in “cold blood,” they need to broaden their inquiry. And not just to the numbers of civilians killed, but also to those high-ranking officers and Bush Administration officials who have created a climate of untenable chaos for US troops, disregard for Iraqi civilians and have given the ok for such breeches of international law.