Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Murder in Iraq

Via The Independent:

Ahmed and the other Iraqis were arrested by a combined force of British soldiers and Iraqi police while they were in a garage in Basra. According to Mr Hanon, a welder, two British soldiers punched and kicked him and his clothes were torn off by an Iraqi policeman. The arrested men were then forced into a hole filled with stagnant water before being taken to a hospital where the same two British soldiers allegedly beat him again.
[...]
British soldiers drove a 15-year- old Iraqi boy who could not swim into a canal at gunpoint and threw stones at him as he floundered in "obvious distress" before drowning, a court martial was told yesterday.
[...]
"The slope was gradual but muddy, neither he nor Ahmed could swim. Two of those who had been detained swam to the other side," Mr Pownall said.

"Two soldiers from the back of the vehicle threw bricks and stones while they were in the water. Kareem was in obvious distress as he was unable to swim. His head bobbed to the surface and then disappeared.

"One of the soldiers who was on the bank of the canal made as if to remove his clothing in order to rescue Kareem, but then returned to the Warrior tank, which drove away."

What is there to say about soldiers who don't know where to draw the line between humane and inhumane treatement? And, more importantly, how many other deaths have soldiers caused outside of so-called "legitimate" battles that we don't know about? How many more Ahmeds are there and how many other families are suffering in silence?

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