U.S. Defends Soldiers' Actions in Killing of 2 Iraqis in Baqubah

[sabra]

Source: WP

BAGHDAD, Dec. 26 -- Two Iraqi men killed by American soldiers north of Baghdad on Tuesday, including a member of a U.S.-backed security force, were shot after one of them fired on the soldiers and the other then attempted to pick up a weapon, according to an account of the incident provided by U.S. military officials on Wednesday.

...

The shooting took place in the al-Mustafa district of western Baqubah as American soldiers were on a mission searching for a man involved in suicide bombings. According to the U.S. military's version of events, at about 3 a.m. the patrol spotted a man, later identified as Uday Hassam Mohammed, in civilian clothes and carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, and shouted at him to drop the weapon. When he did not, and then fired several shots at the Americans, the soldiers returned fire, striking him in the face, said Maj. Mike Garcia, a U.S. military spokesman in Diyala province.
said.

...

Mohammed was a member of the U.S.-backed local volunteer security force, one of more than 70,000 people across the country now working with the U.S. military in the fight against insurgents. But the U.S. military said that at the time of the shooting, he was not wearing his orange reflective vest or belt identifying himself as such, but rather carrying them in a pouch.

A photo taken by a Washington Post special correspondent, after the American soldiers had left the scene, shows Mohammed on the ground with the vest across his chest. Garcia said that it appeared to have been placed there and that the vest was lying next to the body when the American soldiers left. Both slain men were bound in plastic handcuffs.

Iraqis who gathered at the scene of the shootings used the vest and the handcuffs as evidence that the killings were unjustified and alleged that the men were first captured and then shot. During a funeral procession later in the day, people carried banners denouncing the U.S. military and decrying what they called the "criminal" killings. A suicide bomber detonated his charge near the procession, killing at least four people.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/26/AR2007122601637.html

[gratuitous]

1. That tricky bastard!

Putting on his vest and handcuffing himself post-mortem to make our star-spangled, freckle-faced all-American boys look bad! I'm glad Mr. Mohammed's dead, and hope it teaches him a lesson he won't soon forget about living in a country we've invaded.

[Hulk]

2. Why aren't they greeting us as liberators??

This is just more disgusting news out of Iraq that the propaganda network won't be talking about anytime soon. "fair and buried"