Monday, July 28, 2008

U.S. forces attack and kill innocent Iraqis then lie about it

U.S. military says soldiers fired on civilians
By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
Published: July 28, 2008

BAGHDAD: The U.S. military has admitted that a platoon of soldiers raked a car of innocent Iraqi civilians with hundreds of rounds of gunfire and that the military then issued a news release larded with misstatements, asserting that the victims were criminals who had fired on the troops.

The attack on June 25 killed three people, a man and two women, as they drove to work at a bank at Baghdad International Airport. The attack infuriated Iraqi officials and even prompted the Iraqi armed forces general command to call the shooting a cold-blooded murder.

It also bolstered calls from Iraqi politicians to pressure the U.S. military to leave Iraq after this year, when a UN mandate expires, unless the United States agrees to permit its soldiers to be subject to criminal prosecution under Iraqi law for attacks on civilians. Read On

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