Rene — 'This One's Faking He's Dead''He's Dead Now'
Topic(s): Iraq | Comments Off on Rene — 'This One's Faking He's Dead''He's Dead Now'‘This One’s Faking He’s Dead’
‘He’s Dead Now’
Fallujah: Video shows US soldier killing wounded insurgent in cold blood
by Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 by the
lndependent/UK
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.”
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”.
“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.
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.
Military experts said last night that rules of engagement prevented US
troops from shooting an enemy where there was no threat being posed.
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.