- The US Marine Corps launched an investigation into possible
war crimes last night after video footage taken inside a mosque in Fallujah
apparently showed a Marine shooting dead an unarmed Iraqi insurgent who
had been taken prisoner.
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- The footage showed several Marines with a group of prisoners
who were either lying on the floor or propped against a wall of the bombed-out
building. One Marine can be heard declaring that one of the prisoners was
faking his injuries.
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- "He's fucking faking he's dead. He faking he's fucking
dead," says the Marine. At that point a clatter of gunfire can be
heard as one of the Marines shoots the prisoner. Another voice can then
be heard saying: "He's dead now."
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- The footage was obtained by a team from the American
NBC network that was embedded with the Marine Corps during last week's
seven-day battle to capture the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, which
military commanders say has been a focus of Iraqi resistance. The film
was then pooled and made available to other media.
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- On the footage that was broadcast last night, NBC correspondent
Kevin Sites said that the five wounded Iraqi fighters had been left in
the mosque after Marines had fought their way into that part of the city
on Friday and Saturday. Ten other Iraqis had been killed in the battle
for the mosque. Instead of being passed to the rear lines for treatment
the wounded Iraqis were left in the mosque until a second group of Marines
entered the building on Saturday, following reports that the building may
have been reoccupied. Sites said that at this point one of the five Iraqis
was dead and that three of the others appeared to be close to death.
-
- In his report accompanying the images, Sites said that
one of the Marines noticed that one of the wounded men was still breathing
before shouting that he was "faking it".
-
- "The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into
the man's head. The pictures are too graphic for us to broadcast,"
said Sites. He added: "The prisoner did not appear to be armed or
threatening in any way". Major Doug Powell, a spokesman for the Marine
Corps in Washington, told The Independent: "It's being investigated
- I can't say much more than that. It's being investigated for possible
law of war violations. A naval criminal investigation team is looking into
it."
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- The footage - some of the first to show the situation
inside Fallujah and the bloody nature of the street-by-street battle that
has taken place there - is the latest to emerge from Iraq to contain possible
evidence of war crimes perpetrated by the US military.
-
- Other footage has shown troops shooting wounded fighters
lying in open ground as well as attacks on Iraqis - some said to be civilians
- by US aircraft and helicopters. This latest footage is among the most
shocking given that it apparently shows without obstruction the Marine
shooting the prisoner in the head at close range.
-
- Kathy Kelly, a spokeswoman for the peace group Voices
in the Wilderness, said last night that such images would "recruit
more terrorists faster than they are being killed".
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- "I don't think the US is paying much attention to
the Geneva Conventions any more - that is the problem. This must be investigated,"
she said.
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- NBC said in its report that the Marine who had shot the
insurgent had apparently been shot in the face the day before and that
one of his comrades had been killed the previous day by a booby-trap bomb
that had been placed on the body of a dead insurgent. He has been withdrawn
from the field and his unit removed from the front lines, officials said.
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- Military experts said last night that rules of engagement
prevented US troops from shooting an enemy where there was no threat being
posed.
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- Yesterday, the Marines said they had taken more than
1,000 prisoners in the battle for Fallujah. Colonel Michael Regner, operations
officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Fallujah, said at least
1,052 prisoners had been captured in the battle. No more than about two
dozen of them were "foreign fighters", he said.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=583322
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