Another US atrocity in Iraq: Eleven civilians massacred in Ishaqi

The news follows widespread coverage of the unprovoked killings by Marines of 24 unarmed civilians last November in the town of Haditha in Anbar province. The military launched a serious investigation into that incident only after Time magazine reporters last January confronted officials with extensive evidence contradicting the official story that the civilians had been killed from the detonation of an improvised explosive device followed by a firefight with insurgents. The cover-up of the Haditha massacre began to unravel when Time published a detailed account of the killings in March.

In the latest exposure, Iraqi police and local residents of Ishaqi contend that 11 civilians were deliberately killed by US Army troops. US officials said at the time that the soldiers were engaged in a firefight and that heavy shooting led to the collapse of a house, resulting in the deaths of four people—including two women, a child, and a man they claimed was a suspected Al Qaeda supporter.

According to the BBC, however, a report filed by Iraqi police accused the US troops of rounding up 11 people in the house and executing them before blowing up the building, apparently to destroy the evidence of the massacre. The dead included five children and four women. The videotape shows dead children and adults with gunshot wounds to their heads and upper bodies.

The cameraman who shot the video arrived on the scene before the house had collapsed. The footage shows bullet holes everywhere, including on the walls inside the house. The bodies of the dead clearly indicate that they were killed by bullet wounds. In the video, the faces of the dead have been blurred to obscure their horrific injuries.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/iraq-j03.shtml