- On March 24, 2003, an US missile hit a bus carrying fleeing Syrians home. Five Syrians died and ten were wounded. This happened near Rutba, close to the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
- A missile fell on a market place in Baghdad on March 26, 2003, killing between 14 and 17 civilians and wounding more that a hundred others. It looks that it was an American missiles but they try to blame the Iraqi for it.
- On March 28, 2003, another missiles fell on a market place in Baghdad killing 52 civilians, mainly women and children and wounding more than one hundred others. Again we are told that it is not clear if it is an US/British missile or an Iraqi. The Iraqis who are being killed are asking, "is this what the Americans call liberating our country and bringing their freedom which, to us looks more like death". It has also been revealed that the Americans are using the deadly cluster bombs also in urban area.
- At the end of March 2003, a bus that did not stop fast enough at an American checkpoint was shot at, and seven civilians died, mainly women and children died. Somewhere else a lorry driver was killed for the same reason.
- Around March 30, 2003, an American plane shot at a clearly marked British tank killing one soldier and injuring at least two. In this case the plane came back and shot a second time. Of course, the American view is that killing foreigners does not count, not even if they are their allies.
- On April 1, 2003, dozens of Iraqi villagers were killed and injured in an American air raid and land assault at Hilla near the city of Babylon. The death toll was 33 civilians according to the local hospital and about 300 wounded. Now the USA is studying how the Israeli are destroying Palestinian houses with bulldozers in preparation to do the same in Iraq. They also learned house-to-house fighting technique with the Israeli.
- On April 6, 2003, a Russian diplomatic convoy with 23 people -12 diplomats and many Russian journalists- was attacked on its way to Syria from their embassy in Baghdad. At least four officials and journalists were wounded. A Russian television journalist with RTR, the Russian State TV channel, said that the convoy was caught in crossfire between an Iraqi checkpoint and US troops. The Russian ambassador was there but it is not clear if he was hurt or not.
- Friendly fire is killing more people everyday. Up to April 7, 2003, at least 13 Americans, 5 British and about 20 Kurd troops have been killed this way. This is creating some discomfort in the relations between London and Washington. Up to now the British have lost 30 men (16 in accidents, 9 in combat and 5 in friendly fire) and the Americans 91 (12 in friendly fire as well as 14 missing). It is true that the percentage is more or less the same as in the previous wars:
- Second World War, 135,576 US troops killed of which 21,000 by friendly
fire (16%).
- Vietnam (1966-1971), 58,000 US deaths, 8,000 by friendly fire (14%).
- Gulf War (1991), 148 US deaths, 35 by friendly fire (23%); 47 UK deaths,
10 by friendly fire (21%).
- Afghanistan (2002), 31 US deaths, 4 by friendly fire (13%).
- Gulf War (2003, up to now), 91 US deaths, 12 by friendly fire (13%); UK
deaths 30, 5 by friendly fire (17%).
- Police have launched an enquiry after the body of a dead Muslim woman was found desecrated in a Baghdad hospital on April 17, 2003. Slices of bacon were placed on her corpse horrifying her mourning family. A $5,000 reward is offered to find the people responsible.
- Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry announced an investigation Thursday February 16, 2006, into claims of death squads in its ranks. The Interior Ministry probe would focus on a single incident involving 22 Iraqi policemen who were detained last month before they were able to kill a Sunni Arab man north of Baghdad.
- A bloody videotape shot by a local Iraqi journalism student has prompted the Pentagon to launch a criminal investigation on March 19, 2006, into an incident that left at least 15 Iraqi civilians dead in the city of Haditha. The tape shows the bloodied and bullet-marked homes that had been allegedly stormed by the Marines, and includes comments by local residents. The video shows the bodies of some of the dead, including one of three children killed. It all started when a roadside bomb hit a convoy of 12 Marines in Haditha, killing 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas. The official press release said simply: "A US Marine and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb." Military officials now acknowledge the Iraqis were not killed by the bomb -but, they now say, by crossfire as US Marines stormed the surrounding homes. The military did not launch an investigation until two months after the incident, when Time magazine showed officials the video and eyewitness testimony. American troops went into nearby houses and shot dead 15 members of two families, including 3-year-old-girl, local residents said on Monday March 20, 2006. Twelve Marines are under investigation for possible war crimes by the Naval Criminal.
- The Marine Corps are quietly calling it their My Lai, the massacre of hundreds of villagers in 1968 that became a symbol for American brutality in the Vietnam War. In the Iraq war, the village is Haditha, northwest of Baghdad, where US marines killed two dozen Iraqi civilians, including 11 women and children. In the worst allegation of war crimes in Iraq, a military investigation is expected to present findings in Baghdad next week that a small group of troops shot dead 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including five men in a taxi, and women and children at homes in the town last November 19, 2005. Other marines then tried to cover up the killings.
- Fresh photographic evidence on May 27, 2006, seen by US investigators is believed to reveal that some of the 24 unarmed Iraqis killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha after an American died in a roadside bomb in November were in effect executed. The pictures show wounds to the upper bodies of the victims, who included several women and six children. Some were shot in the head and some in the back. There wasn't a gunfight, there were no pockmarked walls. The wounds indicate execution-style shootings. US military investigators are probing the events of 19 November 2005, and a picture is gradually emerging of a small group of troops who lost control in the wake of an unrelated attack on their vehicle, which left one of their comrades dead. Other soldiers then helped to cover up the atrocity.
- A four-man team of United States Marines led the killing rampage in the Iraqi town of Haditha that resulted in the deaths of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. The troops went from house to house shooting their occupants after a roadside bomb killed one of their comrades. Some of the victims were killed, execution style, by shots to the head.
- Two Marines were severely traumatised when told to photograph the corpses of men, women and children after members of their unit killed as many as two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians, their families said on May 30, 2006.
- The US government has promised on May 31, 2006, to make public all the details of inquiries into the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by US marines last November. The Iraqi prime minister said earlier Baghdad would investigate the claims. Nouri Maliki told Reuters news agency there was "a limit to the acceptable excuses" for civilian casualties.
- President Bush promised on Wednesday May 31, 2006, that any Marines involved in the alleged murders of Iraqi civilians will be punished. Military investigators have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines. The shootings came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on November 19, killing a Marine. Residents of Haditha said Marines then went into nearby houses and shot members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl. At first, the American military described what happened as an ambush on a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, with a roadside bombing and subsequent fire fight killing 15 civilians, eight insurgents and a Marine. The statement said the 15 civilians were killed by the blast, a claim the residents strongly denied. With some in Congress alleging a cover-up, the Bush administration offered assurances the facts will be made public.
- The US military ordered coalition troops in Iraq on Thursday June 1, 2006, to undergo special training in ethics and "the values that separate us from our enemies" in the wake of allegations that Marines killed two dozen unarmed civilians in Haditha. The order came as Iraq's government launched its own investigation of the deaths last November in the western town as well as other incidents involving US troops. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the killings "a horrible crime," his strongest public comments on the incident since his government was sworn in May 20.
- On June 2, 2006, we were told that the US military is investigating an incident in which 11 Iraqi civilians may have been deliberately killed by US troops. Video footage obtained by the BBC appears to challenge the US account of events in the town of Ishaqi in March. The US said at the time that four people died during a raid, but Iraqi police said 11 were shot by US troops.
- On June 3, 2006, a US military investigation has found there was no misconduct by US troops over Iraqi civilian deaths in the town of Ishaqi. Major General William Caldwell said reports that troops "executed" a family during a raid on a house in March and tried to cover it up were "absolutely false".
- America's alliance with the new Iraqi government was plunged into major crisis on June 3, 2006, as the country's prime minister and its people reacted with fury to the US military clearing its forces of killing civilians in the town of Ishaqi during operations against insurgents.
- A small group of US Marines alleged to have killed up to two dozen Iraqi
civilians conducted a house-to-house hunt that stretched over three hours,
while other Marines in Haditha did not intervene, an Iraqi human rights investigator,
Thaer al-Hadithi, a member and spokesman for the Hammurabi human rights association,
a Sunni Muslim group said on June 7, 2006. The military, after initially saying
the Iraqi deaths were the result of the roadside bomb and a subsequent gunfight
with insurgents, has not publicly released updated findings. But newer accounts
have indicated at least some of the 24 deaths were the result of deliberate
gunfire by a small group of Marines seeking revenge for the bombing, and that
their actions were covered up by other Marines in the area who knew or suspected
what had occurred.
- Al-Hadithi had been visiting his family in Haditha in western Iraq for a
Muslim holiday when he was awakened on the morning of November 19, 2005, by
the explosion of a roadside bomb that hit a U.S. convoy of four Humvees, killing
one Marine. A native of the town, al-Hadithi was an administrator in the Haditha's
main hospital before he took leave to work with Hammurabi, which was set up
16 months ago. According to U.S. lawmakers briefed by Pentagon officials,
the Marines, enraged by the death of a comrade, stormed nearby homes, killing
occupants as well as the driver and four passengers of a taxi. The roadside
bombing took place on a road about 100-150 yards from his family home.
- The US military said on June 19, 2006, that three US soldiers have been charged with premeditated murder after an incident north of Baghdad on May 9; these charges can bring the death penalty under US military law. The three are accused of shooting three detainees and then threatening to kill a fellow soldier if he told the truth about the incident. The charges were brought against US Army Staff Sergeant Raymond Girouard, Private First Class Corey Clagett and Specialist William Hunsaker, according to charge sheets provided by Army officials at the Pentagon. The three soldiers were members of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The charges also include attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat and obstructing justice. The deaths took place during a raid on a suspected insurgent training camp near Thar Thar Lake, south-west of Tikrit, on May 9, when the military said at the time, more than 200 people were detained at a former chemical factory.
- Three (or five) US soldiers may have raped an Iraqi woman and then murdered her and three members of her family, including a child, U.S. army officers said on Friday June 30, 2006.
- Investigators believe American soldiers spent nearly a week plotting an
attack in which they raped an Iraqi woman, then killed her and her family
in an insurgent-ridden area south of Baghdad, a US military official said
Saturday July 1, 2006. According to the official, the Sunni Arab family had
just moved into a new home in the religiously mixed area about 20 miles south
of Baghdad. The Americans entered the home, separated three family members
from the woman, then raped her and set fire to her body. The three others
were also slain. One of the victims was a child
- On July 6, 2006, a former US soldier has pleaded not guilty to raping and murdering an Iraqi woman and killing three family members. Steven Green is accused of carrying out the rape and murders in Mahmoudiya in March, along with other soldiers. Mr Green faces a possible death sentence if convicted of the killings.
- US marine officers at all levels failed to investigate conflicting reports of killings in the Iraqi town of Haditha, a report quoted by US media said on July 8, 2006. Twenty-four civilians died in the incident in November. The US military initially said they were killed in a bomb blast and exchange of fire. But reports subsequently emerged alleging that US soldiers killed them.
- Four more US soldiers have been charged on Sunday July 9, 2006, with raping
a young Iraqi and killing her and three of her family members in March. The
five soldiers face an Article 32 investigation, the military's equivalent
of a grand jury inquest, to see if evidence warrants bringing them before
a full-scale military tribunal, or court-martial.
- The Iraqi government has called for an investigation after New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Sunday July 23, 2006, that US military personnel regularly torture and abuse Iraqi detainees under interrogation. According to the report, which covered the period from 2003 to 2005, Iraqi prisoners were routinely mistreated while under interrogation by US forces. The report adds that the US military command in Iraq condones such methods.
- A military court opened a preliminary hearing on Tuesday August 1, 2006,to
determine whether four US soldiers charged over the deaths of three male prisoners
in Iraq will face court martial. They have been charged with premeditated
murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and obstructing
justice in the killings in or around May 9 north of Baghdad. Premeditated
murder charges can bring the death penalty under U.S. military law.
- On August 16, 2006, the US military has charged 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan, a Marine Corps officer with assaulting three Iraqi civilians in a town near Hamdania west of Baghdad. He also was charged with three counts of assault and one count of making a false official statement relating to the incident on April 10, 2006. The incident was separate from one in the same town that took place on April 26 in which seven Marines and a Navy medic were charged in June with premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi civilian.
- On August 22, 2006, Iraq has launched its own probe into the alleged rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl by American soldiers even though they face a possible US court-martial in the case.
- An Army investigator has recommended that four soldiers accused of murder in a raid in Iraq should face the death penalty if convicted. Lt. Col. James P. Daniel Jr concluded that the slayings were premeditated and warranted the death sentence based on evidence he heard at an August hearing. The case will now be forwarded to Army officials, who will decide whether Daniel's recommendation should be followed. The soldiers, all from the 101st Airborne Division's 187th Infantry Regiment, are accused of killing three Iraqi men taken from a house May 9 on a marshy island outside Samara. Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett and Spc. Juston R. Graber have claimed they were ordered to "kill all military age males" during the raid on the island. Clagett, Girouard and Hunsaker also are accused of threatening to kill another soldier who witnessed the slayings. Girouard, the most senior soldier charged, faces several additional charges, including sexual harassment and carrying a personal weapon on duty.
- On September 25, 2006, we were told that three US Marines will be tried
on murder charges without the possibility of the death penalty in the April
shooting of an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania in central Iraq. Pfc. John
Jodka, Cpl. Marshall Magincalda and Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate will face courts-martial
in the shooting death on April 26 of Hashim Ibrahim Awad. The three were among
seven Marines and a Navy medic accused of dragging the 52-year-old Iraqi from
his home, shooting him dead and placing an assault rifle and a shovel next
to his body to create the appearance that he was an insurgent planting a roadside
bomb. The Hamdania shooting is one of several in which US troops are accused
of killing civilians in Iraq, including the deaths of 24 people in Haditha
in November last year. Shumate also will be tried on an assault charge for
a separate April 10 incident in the same town involving another Iraqi man,
Khalid Hamad Daham.
- On October 6, 2006, a US Navy medic has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the killing of an Iraqi civilian in April. But Petty Officer Melson J Bacos is expected to spend just one year in jail after agreeing to give evidence against seven marines charged with the murder. Earlier Bacos told his US court-martial that the marines seized the man in the town of Hamdaniya, threw him into a hole and shot him in the head 10 times.
- Meanwhile fresh allegations of abuse of inmates by US prison guards at Guantanamo have emerged on October 3, 2006. Marine Sgt Heather Cerveny, who went to the base three weeks ago as a legal aide to a military lawyer, said five navy guards described in detail how they beat up detainees. "The one sailor specifically said 'I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door'," she said in an affidavit. The allegations are significant because they come from a serving member of the US military. Sgt Cerveny has reported the matter to the military's inspector general, who is looking in to setting up a formal inquiry. The US Pentagon has ordered an inquiry into the alleged abuses.
- Four US soldiers are to face court martial over the rape of an Iraqi girl and murder of her and her family, the US military said on October 19, 2006. Two of the soldiers could face the death penalty if found guilty. Seven other personnel are to face court martial over deaths in two separate cases, in north Iraq and in Hamdaniya. President George W Bush in a TV interview acknowledged for the first time a parallel between Iraq and the Vietnam War.
- Nearly a third of more than 27,000 people in 25 countries worldwide back
the use of torture in prisons in some circumstances, a BBC survey published
on October 19, 2006, suggests. Although 59% were opposed to torture, 29% thought
it acceptable to use some degree of torture to combat terrorism. While most
polled in the US are against torture, opposition there is less robust than
in Europe and elsewhere.
- On October 27, 2006, US President George Bush has reiterated his position
that the US administration does not condone torture, following comments by
Vice-President Dick Cheney. In an interview, Mr Cheney agreed that "a
dunk in the water" for terrorism suspects during questioning in order
to save American lives was a "no-brainer". His comments have provoked
outrage from anti-torture and human rights groups. Mr Cheney is assumed by
human rights groups to have been referring to "water boarding" -
a technique in which suspects are made to think that they are drowning.
- A former US soldier was indicted by a civilian grand jury on Thursday November
2, 2006 for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her family
in March. The indictment charges that Steven Green, 21, and four other soldiers
who are still in the Army sexually abused 14-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi,
then killed her and her father, mother and 6-year-old sister. Green is accused
of trying to burn the bodies to conceal the crime. Another soldier is charged
with covering up the March 12, 2006, crime in Mahmudiya. Among the charges
brought against Green were murder, murder in perpetration of aggravated sexual
abuse, conspiracy charges, sexual abuse of a minor, and obstruction of justice.
If convicted, Green, who was discharged from the Army's 101st Airborne Division
for a "personality disorder," could receive the death penalty. The
others charged in the gang rape and murder face court-martial at Fort Campbell,
Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne Division, with some facing the death
penalty. The Mahmudiya case is one of several in which US servicemen are suspected
of killing Iraqi civilians. It sparked outrage among Iraqis and prompted Iraqi
officials to call for a review of foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi prosecution.
- Seventeen Marine reservists just back from Iraq have been ordered to remain at Camp Lejeune while allegations of misconduct during their deployment are investigated we were told on November 7, 2006. No details on the nature of the allegations were given other than they were levelled against 17 soldiers. The Marines were assigned to Camp Lejeune to assist in the investigation but were not under any restrictions.
- One of four army infantrymen, Specialist James Barker, charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Iraq last March and then killing her and her family pleaded guilty Wednesday November 15, 2006, to all charges in a military court at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The plea came on a day when a marine was scheduled to be sentenced at Camp Pendleton, California, for his part in the kidnapping and killing of an Iraqi man in a town to the west of Baghdad. In a third case, a Marine Corps reservist was sentenced to six months in a military jail after pleading guilty at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to a charge of negligent homicide in the shooting of a fellow marine last year at their barracks in Iraq. James Baker was later conditionally sentenced on Thursday to up to 90 years in prison with the possibility of parole. The sentence is subject to review by a higher military authority and could be reduced. The gang rape and slayings at Mahmudiya along with the killing of 24 people in Haditha and other US military incidents sparked outrage among Iraqis and calls by officials there for a review of foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi prosecution.
- A US marine has received an 18-month prison sentence on November 16, 2006, for his part in killing an unarmed 52-old man in Iraq. Pte John Jodka is one of eight servicemen implicated in the attack seven months ago in Hamdaniya. The judge said he would have sentenced Jodka to five years, but he was bound by a "very fortuitous" pre-trial deal. Jodka, who apologised to the victim's family, is expected to give evidence against the other defendants.
- A US soldier has been sentenced to 18 years in jail on Friday January 12, 2007, after pleading guilty to murdering three Iraqis. Specialist William Hunsaker admitted allowing three detainees to run away before "taking careful aim" and shooting them. Hunsaker, 24, is the second soldier to plead guilty to charges over the killings. On Tuesday Spc Justin Graber admitted a charge of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to nine months in jail.
- On January 20, 2007, US Marine corporal pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering an unarmed Iraqi civilian last year, and said he and other servicemen went after him because they were "sick and tired of getting bombed." Cpl. Trent Thomas, 25, is the first of seven Marines and a Navy medic accused in the case to plead guilty to murder. Four others have pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for their testimony. Prosecutors said the eight-man squad kidnapped 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania, took him to a roadside hole and shot him to death, placing an AK-47 and shovel by his body to make it look as if he was an insurgent caught planting a bomb.
- On January 25, 2007 Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, an US soldier pleaded guilty to killing one Iraqi detainee and taking part in the killings of two others in Iraq last year. He was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison. Clagett was one of four soldiers accused in the detainees' deaths during a May 9 raid on the Muthana chemical complex in Samarra. Clagett pleaded guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The soldiers first told investigators they shot the detainees because they were attempting to flee and that commanders had given them orders to kill all military-age males on the mission. Two of those soldiers, Spc. William B. Hunsaker and Spc. Juston R. Graber, have changed their stories and pleaded guilty. The squad leader, Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard, is awaiting his court-martial. The judge asked Clagett what his intention was when he shot at the detainees. "To kill them, your Honour," Clagett said. Clagett will also be demoted to private and dishonourably discharged. If he does not cooperate with prosecutors, he could be sentenced to life in prison with a chance at parole.
- On February 21, 2007, a US soldier, Paul E. Cortez, described his role in the gang rape and slaying of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family last year. He became the second US soldier to plead guilty to charges in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq. By pleading guilty to rape and four counts of felony murder, Cortez was spared the possibility of a death sentence and must testify against the three other soldiers charged in the case. Cortez will be sentenced to life in prison, plus reduction in rank and a dishonourable discharge. Whether he is eligible for parole will be decided at sentencing. He said he raped 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi in her family's home in Mahmoudiya last March, and that Spc. James Barker, 24, held her down.
- Four Iraqi soldiers have been accused on February 22, 2007, of raping a 50-year-old Sunni woman and the attempted rape of her two daughters in the second allegation of sexual assault levelled against Iraqi forces this week. Brig Gen. Nijm Abdullah said the attack occurred about 10 days ago in Tal Afar during a search for weapons and insurgents. A lieutenant and three enlisted men denied the charge but later confessed after the woman, a Turkman, confronted them. Abdullah said a fifth soldier suspected something was wrong, burst into the house and forced the others at gunpoint to stop the assault. The report follows an allegation on Monday by a 20-year-old Sunni woman that three Iraqi policemen raped her after she was detained during a search of her house in western Baghdad. She was taken to a police garrison where the attack allegedly occurred on Sunday but US soldiers rescued her. Rape is considered an especially heinous crime in this conservative, tribal Muslim society and victims rarely speak about it publicly, fearing shame and even death at the hands of male relatives seeking to save the family honour.
- A US soldier was sentenced to 100 years in prison on February 23, 2007, for the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the killing of her father, mother and sister. The horrific slaying of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and her family happened in Mahmoudiya, around 20 miles south of Baghdad, on March 12 last year. In spite of the apparently long prison sentence, Sergeant Paul Cortez, 24, can expect to be released on parole in about ten years under a plea bargain deal. He was given a dishonourable discharge from the army.
- An Army medic who fatally shot a fellow soldier during a night of heavy drinking in Iraq has been sentenced to 33 years in prison on February 28, 2007. Specialist Chris Rolan will serve just 20 years because of an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder, violating a general order against drinking in Iraq, communicating a threat and reckless endangerment. Rolan will forfeit all his pay and allowances, receive a dishonourable discharge and be reduced to the rank of private. Rolan took the stand before Tuesday's sentencing and apologized to his family, the Army and the family of Pvt. Dylan Paytas, the man he killed.
- Staff sergeant Ray Girouard gave soldiers the option of taking part in the shooting of three Iraqi detainees before the killings took place in samara in May 2006, a soldier testified Wednesday March 14, 2007. Girouard is charged with murder; he is the last and most senior soldier from the 101st Airborne Division to face trial for the killings during a May 9 raid on a suspected insurgent camp. He is accused of ordering soldiers in his squad to kill the men and cover up their crime as self-defence.
- A US soldier was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday March 21,
2007, after pleading guilty to being an accessory to the rape and murder of
a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slaying of her family in one of the most
shocking atrocities in the Iraq war. Private First Class Bryan Howard, who
had faced up to 15 years in prison, agreed to five years under a plea deal
in which he also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice by lying
to his superior officers about the March 12, 2006, attack in Mahmoudiya. Howard
could be released within 27 months if he follows the conditions of the plea
agreement. Howard will have to testify against others charged in the case.
Howard's rank will be reduced to private and he will be dishonourably discharged.
- A US Marine who led the unit accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha shot five men as they stood with their hands in the air, another marine said on May 9, 2007. Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich then told his comrades to lie about it and blame the Iraqi army. Sgt Sanick Dela Cruz was speaking at a hearing for one of the four officers charged with dereliction of duty for not investigating the killings. Three other marines have been charged with second-degree murder. Iraqi witnesses say the shootings were in retaliation for a roadside bomb that had killed Lance Cpl Miguel Terrazas as his convoy drove through Haditha on 19 November 2005.
- Testimony from Major General Richard Huck, a two-star general and the top
general over Marines in Al Anbar province during the November 19, 2005, massacre
of civilians at Haditha revealed on May 11, 2007, he knew of the incident
the day it happened. However, he said that it wasn't until three months later
that he knew that the civilians who were killed were not inadvertently killed.
He called the deaths "unfortunate" and said he was upset to learn
that senior military lawyers knew that the deaths weren't accidental several
weeks before he did.
- Iraqi civilians in the village of Haditha were shot by US marines at close range, a military court in California has been told on June 2, 2007. The commander of a battalion which is accused of killing 24 people -, including three women, seven children and several elderly men- in late 2005 is appearing at the military equivalent of a grand jury. The hearing will decide whether Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, 43, will stand trial. He is accused of dereliction of duty for failing to hold an investigation and of failure to follow an order, after he did not launch an investigation into the killings. Three other officers are also charged with dereliction of duty and three marines face murder charges. According to a prosecutor, some of the Iraqis were shot in the head, several at such close range, that their bodies had powder burns.
- The first criminal trial over the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" of terror suspects has opened in Italy on June 8, 2007. Twenty-six Americans and six Italians are accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric from Italy and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured. The American CIA agents and military personnel will be tried in absentia. Italy has not announced if it will seek their extradition to the Milan trial.
- On June 10, 2007, an inquiry found no evidence that British airports were used by the CIA flying terrorist suspects for torture in other countries. The investigation by the Association of Chief Police Officers followed claims by campaign group Liberty concerning "extraordinary rendition" flights. But aviation expert Chris Yates said he believed evidence to prove the planes came to the UK was "out there".
- On June 30, 2007, the US military in Iraq has charged two of its soldiers with the murder of three Iraqis between April and June in the Iskandariya area, south of Baghdad. Both of the men are accused of premeditated murder and placing weapons beside the bodies of the dead, who were killed in three separate incidents. Staff Sergeant Michael A Hensley is accused of three murders and Specialist Jorge G Sandoval of one. Charges were brought after fellow soldiers alerted the authorities.
- A third US soldier has been charged in an investigation into alleged attempts to cover up the deaths of Iraqi civilians by planting weapons to portray them as combatants. Sgt. Evan Vela was charged Sunday July 1, 2007, with one count of premeditated murder, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice. He was placed in pre-trial confinement.
- A former US Army private charged with taking part in the gang rape of an Iraqi girl and murdering her and her family should be sentenced to die if he is found guilty, US government prosecutors said on Tuesday July3, 2007. Three other soldiers also involved in the rape-murder of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the deaths of her father, mother and six-year-old sister have been court-martialed and a fourth faces military trial later this summer. Earlier this year Pvt. Bryan Howard was sentenced to 27 months in prison, Sgt. Paul Cortez, 24, was sentenced to 100 years in prison under a plea agreement in military court, although he will be eligible for parole in 10 years, Specialist James Barker pleaded guilty at his court-marital and was sentenced to 90 years with the possibility of an earlier parole. Pvt. Jesse Spielman still faces court-martial.
- On July 6, 2007, the US Navy is investigating claims Marines killed up to 10 unarmed Iraqi captives during a battle in Falluja in 2004. The probe centres on several members of the Marine Corp's Kilo Company. Different members of the company have also been accused of the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq in 2005.
- A US marine has been found guilty on July 18, 2007, of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi civilian shot dead during an overnight raid near Baghdad last year. Cpl Trent Thomas was the first of eight members of an infantry unit to go on trial for the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, in Hamdaniya in April 2006. The Purple Heart recipient, who was acquitted of premeditated murder, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
- On Thursday July 19, 2007, two US Army soldiers have been charged with the premeditated murder of an Iraqi, and a lieutenant colonel has been relieved of command in connection with the case. Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales and Spc. Christopher P. Shore were charged with one count of murder in the death, which allegedly occurred June 23 near the northern city of Kirkuk.
- Cpl. Trent D. Thomas was a leader in the kidnapping and killing of an unarmed
man in the Iraqi village of Hamandiya and then lying to superiors about it.
When other Marines began to waver, Thomas, who won a meritorious promotion
for his role in the bloody fight in Faluja in 2004, kept them in line. And
as the Iraqi, whom they considered an insurgent, lay on the ground mortally
wounded, Thomas pumped three bullets into his chest.
The military jury that had convicted Thomas of kidnapping and conspiracy to
commit murder decided on Friday July 20, 2007, that he deserved no further
punishment beyond the 14 months he had spent in the brig awaiting trial. Thomas,
25, could have received life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Instead, he was sent home to Fontana with his wife, Erica, and their two small
children. The jury also decided on a bad-conduct discharge rather than the
more serious dishonourable discharge that the prosecution requested. Well,
this is American justice at its best!
- A US soldier from a group accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing three other family members pleaded guilty to lesser charges on Monday July 30, 2007, but still faces trial on others. Pvt. Jesse Spielman, 22, pleaded guilty to wrongful touching of a corpse, arson, obstructing justice and violating rules against drinking alcohol in a war zone.
- A military jury found a Marine guilty on Wednesday August 1, 2007, of larceny, housebreaking and conspiracy in the 2006 murder and kidnapping of an Iraqi grandfather in Hamdania. In the incident, Marines kidnapped the neighbour of a man they were seeking, killed him and planted a stolen AK-47 and shovel nearby to suggest he was an insurgent killed in a fight. A military jury found Cpl. Marshall Magincalda guilty of larceny and housebreaking as well as participating in a conspiracy to murder, kidnap, commit larceny and obstruction of justice, make a false official statement and break into a house. The jury acquitted Magincalda of murder, kidnapping and making a false official statement.
- On Friday August 3, 2007, a US court martial has convicted a marine squad leader of murder over the killing of an Iraqi grandfather. Sgt Lawrence G Hutchins III was also convicted of conspiracy to murder Hashim Ibrahim Awad in April 2006. Mr Awad was pulled from his home in Hamdaniya and shot, with an assault rifle placed nearby to make him look like an insurgent. Another member of Sgt Hutchins' squad, Cpl Magincalda, was found guilty on Wednesday of conspiracy to murder.
- A US Marine squad leader who boasted to his men they had "got away with murder" after kidnapping and killing an Iraqi grandfather was sentenced on Friday August 3, 2007, to 15 years in prison. A military jury issued the sentence, along with a reprimand and dishonourable discharge, after finding Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III guilty of unpremeditated murder, larceny and other crimes.
- A soldier convicted of rape and murder in the death of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slayings of her family was sentenced Saturday August 4, 2007, to 110 years in prison. The sentence was part of plea agreement attorneys for Pfc. Jesse Spielman had made with prosecutors that limited the number of years he could serve in prison, regardless of the jury's recommendation. Spielman was convicted of rape, conspiracy to commit rape, housebreaking with intent to rape and four counts of felony murder. Spielman received the longest sentence of four soldiers who have been convicted. Three other soldiers pleaded guilty under agreements with prosecutors for their roles in the assault and were given sentences ranging from five to 100 years.
- On August 9, 2007, all charges have been dismissed against two Marines
accused in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, the Marine Corps
announced Thursday. Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt was charged with murdering
three brothers. Capt. Randy Stone was charged with failing to adequately report
and investigate the November 19, 2005, combat action in which women and children
were among the dead. In his decision to dismiss charges, Lt. Gen. James Mattis,
the commanding general with jurisdiction in the case, said he was sympathetic
to the challenges Marines on the ground face in Iraq.
- Two American Marines in Falluja in 2004 face charges of killing three men detained in the search of a home in which weapons were found we were told on Monday August 20, 2007.The charges represent the latest in a series of incidents in which members of the US armed forces are alleged to have committed violent crimes in Iraq, actions that have intensified international criticism over the US invasion. Military prosecutors charged Sgt. Jermaine Nelson "for the unlawful murder" of an unknown foreign national in Falluja November 9, 2004. Nelson's squad leader, Jose Luis Nazario, also faces criminal charges, but since he has left the military he was charged with voluntary manslaughter by the US Attorney in Riverside, California.
- A military hearing began on August 30, 2007, to decide whether a US Marine, Sgt Frank Wuterich, should be tried for murder over an attack in which 24 Iraqis died. He is alleged to be the ringleader of US troops who killed Iraqi civilians in November 2005 in the town of Haditha. His lawyers are expected to argue that his actions were lawful because he followed rules of combat engagement. Four marines were initially accused of unpremeditated murder, but charges against two of them have been dropped. The two still charged, Sgt Wuterich and fellow marine L/Cpl Stephen Tatum, could face life imprisonment if found guilty. L/Cpl Tatum's case is currently under review. Four senior officers were charged with failing adequately to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings, but the case against one has been dismissed.
- Captain Lucas M. McConnell, a US Marine commander, who led the unit that killed in Haditha as many as 24 Iraqi civilians, has had all criminal charges against him dismissed nearly two years after the shootings occurred. Three senior officers above McConnell received administrative punishments this month for their own actions and inactions after the incident.
- A US soldier broke down in tears Thursday September 27, 2007, as he testified that he was ordered to shoot an unarmed Iraqi man, and that his sergeant laughed and told the trooper to finish the job as the man convulsed on the ground. Sgt. Evan Vela's testimony came during the court-martial of Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval. Sandoval is on trial for allegedly killing Iraqis and trying to cover up the deaths by planting weapons at the scene. Vela, Sandoval and Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley., are all charged in the case. Vela testified that Hensley told him to shoot the Iraqi man, although he was not armed and had his hands in the air when he approached the soldiers.
- A military jury acquitted an Army sniper, Specialist Jorge G. Sandoval, of murder charges on September 28, 2007, in connection with the deaths of two Iraqi men whom he and his unit killed during missions in the dangerous Sunni Arab region south of Baghdad last spring.
- The court-martial that cleared a US Army sniper of two counts of murder sentenced him Saturday September 29, 2007, to five months in prison, reduced his rank to private and ordered his pay withheld for planting evidence in the deaths of two Iraqi civilians.
- A military investigator said on October 5, 2007, no murder charges should be brought against a US marine accused of leading a massacre of Iraqi civilians. Sgt Frank Wuterich is alleged to have been the ringleader of US troops who killed 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005 in the town of Haditha. Lt Col Paul Ware recommended that Sgt Wuterich be tried for the lesser offence of negligent homicide.
- On October 13, 2007, the US military said it will investigate an operation in Iraq which left 15 women and children dead, alongside 19 suspected militants. The operation, north of Baghdad, is one of the biggest known single losses of civilian life since the war began in 2003. A US official said the soldiers were acting in self-defence.
- Two US marines, including a battalion commander, face a court martial On
October 20, 2007, in connection with the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in
Haditha in 2005. Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani is charged with dereliction of duty
and failing to report and investigate the deaths. L/Cpl Stephen Tatum is accused
of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.
Prosecutors allege that the marines shot unarmed people in retaliation for
a roadside bomb attack that killed one of their comrades.
- On December 14, 2007, a US marine, Lance Corporal Delano Holmes, has been found guilty of killing an Iraqi soldier while they were on night-time patrol in Falluja. He was convicted of negligent homicide, but was found not guilty of a more serious charge of unpremeditated murder. Holmes stabbed the Iraqi private in a fight after suspecting he might be signalling to an insurgent sniper. He now faces up to eight years in prison and a dishonourable discharge.
- A US woman who said she was raped by US contractors in Iraq testified in Congress on Wednesday December 19, 2007; she was kept under armed guard in her trailer after reporting the incident. Jamie Leigh Jones, now 23, said that she was gang raped inside the Baghdad Green Zone in July 2005 while she was working for the Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc, which has support contracts with the US military. Jones told committee members that on her fourth day in Baghdad some co-workers drugged her. The next morning she woke up groggy and confused and with a sore chest and blood between her legs. She reported the incident to KBR and was examined by an army doctor, who confirmed she had been repeatedly raped vaginally and anally.
- US and Iraqi forces have discovered a "torture complex" in an al-Qaida safe haven near Muqdadiya in central Diyala province on December 21, 2007. Three buildings containing chains on the walls and ceilings, and a metal bed connected to a power supply were found during an operation on 9 December. Mass graves containing 26 bodies were uncovered nearby.
- The Marine, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, accused of leading his unit in killing 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Hadithain 2005 will be charged with voluntary manslaughter and other counts, but more serious charges of unpremeditated murder were dismissed on Monday December 31, 2007. After a roadside bomb killed a Marine and wounded two others, Wuterich's squad allegedly shot five men by a nearby car. Wuterich then ordered his men into several houses, where they cleared rooms with grenades and gunfire, killing unarmed civilians. Marines said they were searching for hostile combatants.
- The only US army officer to be charged over the Iraq jail abuse scandal, Lt-Col Steven Jordan, has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the US military authorities on January 11, 2008. He was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison's interrogation unit when pictures of US soldiers abusing prisoners were taken in 2003. He was cleared of mistreatment charges in August, but convicted of disobeying orders not to discuss the inquiry. That conviction has now been thrown out, angering human rights campaigners. They say the US military failed to investigate those further up the chain of command over the Abu Ghraib scandal, despite promising to do so.
- American forces accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians, including a child, while hunting al-Qaida fighters south of Baghdad on Sunday February 3, 2008. Three other civilians, including two children, were wounded. US helicopters were called in after an American convoy was attacked near the town of Iskandariya. The aircraft apparently fired by mistake on a checkpoint manned by Concerned Local Citizens -Sunnis, some former insurgents, who have turned against al-Qaida and allied themselves with the Americans.
- Videotapes seized during US raids on suspected al-Qaida hide-outs show the terror group training young boys to kidnap and assassinate civilians, we were told on February 6, 2008.
- An American soldier, Sergeant Evan Vela, accused of killing an Iraqi civilian then planting a gun on the body was suffering from sleep deprivation and too tired to know what he was doing, his lawyer claimed on February 8, 2008. Vela is charged with premeditated murder, making a false official statement and of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. Two other soldiers have faced similar charges over the same killing and two more. They were acquitted of the murder charges but were convicted of planting evidence on the bodies of the dead Iraqis.
- Lawyers claimed on February 22, 2008, that up to 20 Iraqi prisoners were
executed by British troops after a gun battle. Some alleged survivors of the
gun battle near the southern Iraqi town of Majat-al-Kabir also claim that
corpses were mutilated by UK military.
- On March 4, 2008, a court in Iraq dropped charges against two former senior officials in the health ministry, the former deputy health minister, Hakim al-Zamili, and the ministry's former head of security, Brig-Gen Hamid al-Shammari, who were accused of involvement with Shia death squads. Prosecutors said the court had decided there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the trial. The two men denied allegations that they had allowed death squads to use ambulances and hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings. The US embassy said there were allegations of witness intimidation.
- The US military dropped all charges against the Marines L/Cpl Stephen Tatum accused of involvement in the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November 2005. He was to face a court martial on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say that US marines indiscriminately killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in the incident. Five of the eight men initially accused have now had all charges dismissed.
- The U.S. military on Sunday May 11, 2008, ordered a court-martial for a civilian contractor charged with aggravated assault while working as an Army translator in Iraq -the first such military prosecution since the Vietnam War. Alaa "Alex" Mohammad Ali, who holds dual Iraqi-Canadian citizenship, is accused of stabbing another contractor four times during a fight February 23 on a base near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad. The victim suffered chest wounds.
- A US Marine, Sergeant Jermaine Nelson, is to face court martial for murder over allegations that an unarmed Iraqi prisoner was shot dead during fighting in Fallujah in 2004 we were told on Wednesday May 14, 2008. Nelson is one of three soldiers facing charges in the case, which occurred during fierce combat operations in Fallujah on November 9, 2004. Another Marine sergeant from Nelson's unit, Ryan Weemer, was charged with murder and dereliction of duty in March. A third soldier, Jose Nazario, is being tried in civilian courts in California on manslaughter charges in connection with the shooting deaths of two Iraqi prisoners. Nazario, who denies the charges, is awaiting trial.
- Iraq's Foreign Minister called on Britain on May 20, 2008, to investigate allegations of sexual abuse and harassment of Iraqi workers at its embassy in Baghdad. It is the Iraqi Government's first public response to allegations made by employees of the American company KBR, which was hired to maintain the British Embassy's premises in the Green Zone. An Iraqi cleaner and two cooks employed by KBR said that a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying existed at the embassy. The cleaner alleged that a British contractor with KBR offered to double her daily pay if she agreed to stay the night with him. After she refused, she said that she was dismissed.
- A German-born Turkish citizen told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday May 20, 2008,
of abuses he suffered while detained by the United States in Afghanistan and
in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. In testimony by satellite link from Germany
to a House of Representatives' panel, Murat Kurnaz recounted his five-year
detention, alleging a wide range of torture and abuse. He said that in 2002
in Afghanistan, U.S. interrogators subjected him to beatings, electrical shocks
and, on one occasion, a technique he said was referred to as "water treatment."
He said his head was held under water in a bucket while he was punched in
the stomach, forcing him to inhale. On another occasion, he was hung by his
arms for five days, he said. "The pain from this treatment was beyond
belief," he said. "I know that others have died from this treatment."
Kurnaz claims he was also subject to repeated beatings at Guantanamo, as well
as forced medication and sexual and religious abuse.
- A military jury acquitted a Marine intelligence officer, First Lieutenant
Andrew Grayson, on June 4, 2008, of charges that he tried to help cover up
the killings of 24 Iraqis. He was the first of three Marines to be tried in
the biggest US criminal case involving Iraqi deaths linked to the war. Grayson
was not at the scene of the killings of men, women, and children on November
19, 2005, in Haditha. He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs
of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.
- On June 6, 2008 we were told that the US government charged a Marine sniper,
Sgt. John Winnick II, for allegedly killing two civilians and shooting at
two others last year in western Iraq. He was charged May 19 with two counts
of voluntary manslaughter, one count of aggravated assault and one count of
failure to obey order or regulations. Winnick is accused of shooting the Iraqis
June 17, 2007, without assessing whether they posed a threat. The shootings
occurred during combat operations near Lake Tharthar in Iraq's western Anbar
province. If convicted, Winnick could be imprisoned for 40 years and receive
a dishonourable discharge.
- Medical examinations of former terrorism suspects held by the U.S. military
at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, found evidence of torture
and other abuse that resulted in serious injuries and mental disorders, we
were told on June 17, 2008. Physicians for Human Rights had doctors and mental
health professionals examine 11 former prisoners. They found evidence of U.S.
torture and war crimes and accuses U.S. military health professionals of allowing
the abuse of detainees, denying them medical care and providing confidential
medical information to interrogators that they then exploited. One Iraqi prisoner,
identified only as Yasser, reported being subjected to electric shocks three
times and being sodomized with a stick. His thumbs bore round scars consistent
with shocking. Another Iraqi, identified only as Rahman, reported he was humiliated
by being forced to wear women's underwear, stripped naked and paraded in front
of female guards, and was shown pictures of other naked detainees. The psychological
exam found that Rahman suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had
sexual problems related to his humiliation.
- A former Marine, Jose Nazario, charged with voluntary manslaughter in the
killing of two Iraqi captives in Fallujah will face trial in August. He is
one of three Marines accused of shooting a group of unarmed detainees during
some of the heaviest fighting of the war in November 2004. His trial was scheduled
to begin July 8, but U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Larson postponed it
on Monday to August 19. The charges against Nazario involve the killing of
two Iraqis. He has pleaded not guilty. Because he completed his military service,
the former sergeant faces charges in Riverside federal court.
- The Royal Military Police is investigating an allegation that British soldiers sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Iraqi boy we were told on Sunday July 13, 2008. The incident is alleged to have taken place at Camp Bread Basket in Basra in May 2003.
- Two American soldiers have been charged with the murder of an Iraqi prisoner
we were told on August 3, 2008. Staff Sgt Hal Warner and 1st Lt Michael Behenna
are accused of the premeditated murder of Ali Mansour Mohammed. They have
also been charged with assault, making a false official statement and obstructing
justice.
- Six US sailors working as prison camp guards in Iraq face courts martial for abusing detainees, the US Navy said on August 15, 2008. Eight detainees were allegedly sealed in a pepper spray-filled cell at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq and two detainees were beaten, although they suffered no broken bones. The assaults occurred on 14 May after some guards had been spat at and had human waste thrown at them by detainees.
- On August 28, 2008, a former US marine, Jose Luis Nazario Jr, has been acquitted of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of unarmed detainees in Iraq four years ago. Nazario was charged with killing or causing others to kill four unarmed detainees in Falluja during some of the fiercest fighting of the war in Iraq in 2004 which saw house-to-house fighting. Other former marines testified during the five-day trial that they heard gunshots but did not see Nazario kill the detainees.
- A US soldier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to seven months in prison Thursday September 18, 2008, in the deaths of four Iraqis. He stood guard from a machine-gun turret while the bound men were shot. The relatively lenient sentence for Spc. Belmor Ramos was part of a deal that will see him testify against others alleged to have been involved in the killings last year. The four unidentified Iraqi men were bound, blindfolded, shot in the head and dumped in a Baghdad canal between 10 March and 16 April 2007 -killings were in retribution for casualties in Ramos' unit at the time.
- An ex-court prosecutor, Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, refused to testify without a grant of immunity Thursday September 25, 2008, on why he abruptly resigned from a terror trial in the latest controversy at the Guantanamo military commissions. He said that he quit rather than prosecute the case of a young Afghan captive, in part because he believed evidence helpful to the accused might never be disclosed. Mohammed Jawad, captured as a teenager, is accused of throwing a grenade that wounded two US soldiers and their interrogator in a bazaar in Kabul, in December 2002.
- US Army Spc. Steven Ribordy was part of a patrol of seven soldiers accused of killing four Iraqi prisoners in spring 2007 who were bound, blindfolded and shot before being dumped in a canal. Ribordy, who is not believed to have taken part in the actual shooting of the prisoners, is scheduled to be court-martialed Thursday October 2, 2008, charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Last month another soldier, Spc. Belmor Ramos, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven months in prison and a dishonourable discharge. Ramos, 23, testified that he stood guard as the killings were carried out. Ramos was given the relatively lenient sentence as part of a deal in which he is to testify against others alleged to have been involved in the killings.
- Asoldier has been charged with murder in the September shootings of a superior and a fellow team leader at their Army patrol base in central Iraq. Sgt Joseph Bozicevich is being held in pre-trial confinement at an undisclosed location in southern Georgia. He is charged with the September 14 slayings of Army Staff Sgt Darris Dawson and Sgt Wesley R Durbin.
- US guards, from the US security firm Blackwater, indicted over the 2007 fatal shooting of 17 Iraqis used machine guns and grenade launchers against unarmed civilians we were told on December 7, 2008. The guards were contracted to defend US diplomats. The firm says its guards acted in self-defence. The five men are charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, as well as weapons violations and attempted manslaughter. A sixth guard has pleaded guilty to killing at least one Iraqi.
- Former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior US officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a report released on Thursday December 11, 2008, by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The report said Rumsfeld contributed to the abuse by authorizing aggressive interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay on December 2, 2002. He rescinded the authorization six weeks later. But the report said word of his approval continued to spread within US military circles and encouraged the use of harsh techniques as far away as Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President
George W Bush has said on December 16, 2008, that the reporter has been beaten
in custody. Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken
ribs and internal bleeding. Mr Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr Bush at a news
conference, calling him "a dog".
- David Miliband, the UK Foreign Secretary, told MP on February 5, 2009, that releasing classified US information could do "real and significant damage" to British national security. Publishing details of the treatment of Binyam Mohamed against US wishes could hurt trust key to intelligence sharing. A US government letter to the Foreign Office warned of "lasting damage" to intelligence sharing if this happened.
- An Army sergeant was charged on February 18, 2009, with complicity in the murder of four prisoners after a combat patrol in Iraq in 2007. He is accused of knowing in advance that some of his fellow soldiers intended to kill the Iraqi prisoners, and he is charged with conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.
- An Army staff sergeant who was facing a murder charge in the death of an Iraqi detainee pleaded guilty to assault on Wednesday February 18, 2009, and received 17 months' confinement, had his rank reduced to private and was given a bad conduct discharge. He pleaded guilty to charges of assault, maltreatment of a subordinate and making a false statement. Warner admitted to standing on the detainee's legs while he was defenceless during the assault then days later helping strip Mohammed naked and leaving him in the desert. Another soldier, 1st Lt. Michael Behenna faces trial next week on a murder charge in the death of detainee Ali Mansour Mohammed in May 2008. Prosecutors say Behenna shot Mohammed, then used and incendiary grenade to burn the detainee's body. Prosecutors say Behenna later shot the detainee.
- Contradicting previous denials about Britain's participation in the Bush administration's global war on terrorism, Defence Minister John Hutton said Thursday February 26, 2009, that Britain had handed over two terrorism suspects captured in Iraq to the United States, which sent them to Afghanistan, where they remain after more than four years. The men, thought to be Pakistani nationals, are members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani Islamist group with links to al-Qaida, and have been classified as "unlawful enemy combatants". His disclosure contradicts past claims by British government officials that the government was never complicit in the practice of extraordinary rendition, in which detainees are sent to third countries, including some in which torture is common.
- On March 8, 2009, British MPs have demanded a judicial inquiry into a Guantanamo
Bay prisoner's claims that MI5 was complicit in his torture. UK resident Binyam
Mohamed claims MI5 fed his US captors questions, at a time he said he was
being tortured in Morocco. His allegations are being investigated by the government,
but the Foreign Office said it did not condone torture.
- A US soldier has been sentenced on March 30, 2009, to 35 years in prison for murdering four Iraqi detainees in 2007. Sgt Joseph Mayo was earlier convicted by a court martial of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. The detainees were shot and dumped in a Baghdad canal in retribution for an attack on an US patrol in the Iraqi capital in which two soldiers died. Mayo will be eligible for parole in 10 years, the court ruled. He had pleaded guilty to the charges during the hearing at the US Army's Rose Barracks in southern Germany.
- A U.S. soldier has been charged with murder in the shooting of a foreign contractor we were told on Sunday April 5, 2009. Pfc. Carl T. Stovall was taken into custody soon after the March 26 shooting at the U.S. base in Taji north of Baghdad.
- US Master Sergeant John E. Hatley pleaded not guilty Monday April 13, 2009, to murder charges that included what a prosecutor has termed the "execution-style" shootings of prisoners in Iraq. Hatley is accused of five counts of premeditated murder, one count of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and one count of obstruction of justice. He stands accused of killings in two separate events. He is the most senior of three US non-commissioned officers to be tried for killing four detainees who prosecutors and co-defendants have said were bound, blindfolded and shot in the head. Hatley is also accused of the separate killing of a prisoner on or about January 3, 2007. Two other soldiers -Sergeant Michael Leahy, a medic, and Sergeant First Class Joseph P. Mayo- have been convicted and sentenced to life and 35 years in prison, respectively, with the possibility of parole.
- A U.S. Army career soldier was convicted on April 15, 2009, of murder in the execution-style slayings in spring 2007 of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees. Master Sgt. John Hatley, 40, and two others took the four men to a Baghdad neighbourhood, shot them in the head, and dumped their bodies in a canal. A military jury in Germany found Hatley guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder after a three-day court-martial. But it acquitted him of premeditated murder in the January 2007 death of an Iraqi insurgent. Hatley, who denied the charges, could get life in prison without parole. Two soldiers in his unit were convicted of the killings at courts-martial earlier this year. Two others pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison last year in the incident, one to conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and one to accessory to murder.
- A US soldier was jailed for life Thursday April 16, 2009, for the "execution-style" murder of four prisoners in Iraq. US Master Sergeant John E. Hatley had also been found guilty Wednesday of conspiracy to kill the unidentified detainees, but was acquitted of a fifth charge of premeditated murder and of obstruction of justice. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years unless possible clemency measures reduce his sentence.
- Top US officials, not a "few bad apples" of low rank, were behind harsh military interrogation tactics that spread from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan to Iraq, a new Senate report said on April 22, 2009. The report showed that claims by top aides to then-president George W. Bush "that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a 'few bad apples,' were simply false." The report is "a condemnation of both the Bush administration's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse to low ranking soldiers". US officials began preparing for what came to be known as "enhanced interrogation" techniques just a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks and before a series of memos declaring such practices legal.
- The Pentagon is about to release "hundreds" of photographs showing
the alleged abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan we were told on April
25, 2009. The abuses by US personnel occurred during President George W Bush's
time in office. The court order had been contested by the Bush administration.
- The US military is "deeply saddened" by the outcome of its raid
in southern Iraq in which two people were killed we were told on Tuesday April
28, 2009. Colonel Richard Francey, expressed his condolences for "a terrible
tragedy" that took place in Kut on Sunday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
Maliki denounced the operation as a crime and a violation of the security
pact governing the US presence in Iraq.
The US says the raid was approved by Iraqi officials, as the pact requires.
Iraq has detained two of its army commanders who allegedly authorised the
operation without the knowledge of officials.
- A former soldier's life is in the hands of a Kentucky jury after the panel convicted him of raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl and killing her family in Iraq. The 12 jurors were scheduled to reconvene Monday to weigh the penalty in the case of one-time Army Pfc. Steven Dale Green. Green was convicted Thursday May 7, 2009, in federal court in Paducah in the March 12, 2006, attack on Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and her family in a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad.
- A U.S. soldier suspected of shooting dead five fellow servicemen at a military clinic in Baghdad was charged with five counts of murder Tuesday May 12, 2009. Sergeant John Russel is suspected of being the man who went on a shooting spree at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport, Monday, an incident may have been triggered by stress.
- An ex-soldier convicted of raping and killing an Iraqi teen and murdering
her family was spared the death penalty Thursday May 21, 2009, after jurors
couldn't agree on a punishment for the brutal crime. Steven Dale Green will
instead serve a life sentence.
- On May 27, 2009, a former US general said graphic images of rape and torture are among the photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse that President Obama's administration does not want released. Retired Major General Antonio Taguba, who oversaw the US investigation into the abuses at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, was quoted as telling Britain's Daily Telegraph in an article Wednesday that he agreed with Obama's decision not to release the pictures.
- The Obama administration asked a federal appeals court Thursday May 28,
2009, to halt the release of disturbing images of detainee abuse, saying the
photos could incite violence in Pakistan as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The court papers filed in New York cite two partially secret statements from
two top US generals, David Petraeus and Ray Odierno.
- An Army sergeant accused of slaying his superior and another US soldier in Iraq will face a court-martial and could be sentenced to death if convicted we were told on Tuesday July 7, 2009. Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich shot his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson, and Sgt. Wesley Durbin on Sept. 14 at a joint US-Iraqi patrol base south of Baghdad. Witnesses have said Bozicevich opened fire on the soldiers when they tried to counsel him for poor performance. If Bozicevich is convicted but not sentenced to death, he would face life in prison without parole.
- Iraqi officials outraged by the abuse of prisoners at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison are trying to contain a scandal of their own as allegations continue to surface of mistreatment inside Iraqi jails. Accounts of Iraqis being beaten with clubs, blindfolded and coerced into signing false confessions are attracting increased attention partly because the United States is getting out of the prison business in Iraq. Since a security agreement took effect January 1, the U.S. has transferred 841 detainees into Iraq's crowded prison system and more are on the way. Allegations of mistreatment have persisted since 2005, when U.S. troops raided an Interior Ministry lockup in a predominantly Shiite area of southeastern Baghdad and found scores of emaciated prisoners. The matter returned to the spotlight after the June 12 assassination of Sunni lawmaker Harith al-Obeidi, an outspoken advocate of prisoner rights.
- Handguns, electric drills and mock executions were used by CIA agents to elicit information from terror suspects we were told on August 22, 2009. Reports contain details of a 2004 review by the CIA's inspector general that has been kept secret but is now due to be released next week. Publication of the CIA report was ordered after a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union. The US has banned harsh interrogation methods, including death threats.
- A former US soldier convicted of rape and murder while serving in Iraq will spend life in prison, a judge in the US state of Kentucky has confirmed on September 5, 2009. Steven Green, 24, is to serve five consecutive life sentences for raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family near Baghdad in 2006. Green was convicted in May but the jury could not unanimously agree a sentence and he was spared the death penalty. Four other soldiers are serving time for their roles in the crime.
- A Swedish charity accused American troops Monday September 6, 2009, of searching a hospital in central Afghanistan, tying up security guards and breaking into female wards, which is offensive to local Islamic customs. The charity accused troops of breaking down doors, searching patients' relatives and entering the ultrasound room. The troops from the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division claimed they entered the Wardak province hospital looking for suspected Taliban fighters and demanded hospital staff to inform military authorities of any incoming patients who might be insurgents.
- The government failed twice to persuade jurors that members of a Marine
squad wrongly killed unarmed detainees in Fallujah. Now it's trying a third
time. A court-martial is scheduled to begin Tuesday September 29, 2009, at
Camp Pendleton for Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, who has pleaded not guilty to unpremeditated
murder and dereliction of duty in the November 2004 death of a detainee. The
Marines were involved in vicious house-to-house fighting to recapture Fallujah
from insurgents. If convicted of murder, Nelson, of New York, faces a maximum
sentence of life in prison.
- The British Ministry of Defence said on November 14, 2009, it is investigating new allegations of abuse by the UK military in Iraq. Lawyers acting for former Iraqi detainees are calling for a full public inquiry into 33 abuse claims made during UK military involvement there. One allegation is that two soldiers raped a 16-year-old boy in 2003.
- A former British soldier convicted in connection with the death in custody of an Iraqi man told a public inquiry in London Monday November 16, 2009, that the abuse of civilians was 'routine' and widespread during the Iraq conflict. Ex-corporal Donald Payne told a public inquiry into the 2003 death of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa that he had until now 'covered up' the extent of the abuse of Iraqis by British soldiers out of 'misguided loyalty.' Payne alleged that Colonel Jorge Mendonca, who was his battalion commander in Iraq at the time, had been 'gung ho' and 'somewhat trigger-happy' during his time in Iraq.
- A report in The Washington Post published Saturday November 28, 2009, cites
two Afghan teenagers who say they were beaten by interrogators while being
held at the Bagram air base jail this year. They also say they suffered sleep
depravation and sexual humiliation. The Post says the detainees' claims cannot
be independently substantiated, though human rights workers have reported
similar abuses. A separate report in the New York Times says detainees also
were held, sometimes for weeks at a time at Bagram, without access to representatives
of the Red Cross.
- On Friday December 11, 2009, we were told that highly trained personnel employed with the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide sometimes operated side by side with CIA field officers in Iraq and Afghanistan as the agency undertook missions to kill or capture members of insurgent groups in those countries.
- On January 2, 2010, a US federal judge has dismissed all charges against five guards from US security firm Blackwater over the killing of 17 Iraqis in 2007. The five, contracted to defend US diplomatic personnel, were accused of opening fire on a crowd in Baghdad. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the US justice department had used inadmissible evidence.
- On January 2, 2010, Iraq has criticised a US judge's dismissal of all charges against guards from US security firm Blackwater over the killing of 17 Iraqis in 2007. A government spokesman said an Iraqi investigation showed the men had committed a "serious crime" and Baghdad would seek to prosecute them. The five had all pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. A sixth guard admitted killing at least one Iraqi.
- Two men who worked as security contractors for the company formerly known
as Blackwater have been charged with murder in the killings of two Afghan
men we were told on Thursday January 7, 2010. Christopher Drotleff and Justin
Cannon are charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of
attempted murder each in connection with the May shootings in Kabul.
- The first American civilian found guilty of mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has had his prison sentenced reduced to less than seven years Former CIA contractor David Passaro was resentenced Tuesday April 6, 2010, after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the judge failed to explain his reason for giving Passaro a longer term than federal sentencing guidelines suggested. Passaro was initially sentenced to more than eight years in prison. Passaro was convicted in August 2006 after prosecutors argued that he beat detainee Abdul Wali with a flashlight and kicked him in the groin. Prosecutors said the assault took place during a two-day interrogation at a remote military base in Afghanistan in July 2003. Wali later died.
- On April 7, 2010, the trial of a British security guard accused of murdering two colleagues in Iraq has been adjourned for two months for psychiatric assessments. Former soldier Danny Fitzsimons was arrested after the two men were shot dead on 9 August 2009. Mr Fitzsimons said he acted in self-defence.
- Torture, beating and sodomizing inmates with brooms or pistol barrels were
the norm at an illegal prison run by a military unit under the command of
the Iraqi prime minister's office, Human Rights Watch said ON April 28, 2010.
The rights group called for a thorough investigation over the detention centre,
which was discovered and closed down this month and urged Iraq to prosecute
those responsible. Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has denied any connection
with the facility, which housed mainly Sunni Arab prisoners from Mosul where
insurgent groups such as al Qaeda operate.
- Ten soldiers from the Army's Stryker brigade in southern Afghanistan are under investigation for the murder of three Afghan civilians and illicit drug use. The soldiers are accused of the crimes by at least one member of their own unit who witnessed the drug use and learned of the murders from another soldier. The soldier who informed his superiors of the drug use was later beaten badly by the men he accused. While recovering from his injuries, another member of his unit approached him to say that the abuse went far beyond drugs, and that these men were responsible for murdering innocent Afghan civilians.
- A dozen US soldiers have been charged with a series of crimes committed in Afghanistan, including the murder of three Afghan civilians and the subsequent cover-up we were told on Wednesday September 8, 2010. The soldiers from the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division out of Washington State have been charged in connection with the attempted cover-up of the murder and assault of Afghan civilians, as well as the mutilation of dead Afghans, and drug use. The brigade operated near Kandahar. The Pentagon is worried about the effect that the case will have on perceptions of its operations in Afghanistan.
- Up to 30,000 prisoners, including many veterans of the US detention system, are being held without rights in Iraq and are frequently tortured or abused according to a report by Amnesty International published September 13, 2010. The abuses are systemic, the report claims, with alleged victims having little redress or access to trial -in many cases for longer than two years.
- Five rouge members of a platoon from the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division were charged on September 19, 2010, of three murders in Kandahar province between January and May. Seven others were charged with crimes related to the case, including hashish use, attempts to impede the investigation and a retaliatory gang assault on a private who blew the whistle. They have also been charged with dismembering and photographing corpses, as well as keeping a skull and bones as trophies. All have denied any wrongdoing.
- Five soldiers have been charged on September 20, 2010, with killing Afghan civilians in three different incidents over five months. The soldiers were members of 3rd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, and 1st Infantry Regiment. They had been stationed north of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold. In the first incident, in January, an Afghan approached Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs and his men. Gibbs threw a grenade at him, and then ordered his men to open fire, killing him. In February and again in May, the Army alleges, Gibbs led his men in similar actions. Gibbs also collected gruesome trophies from dead Afghans. Fingers. Leg bones. Teeth. Gibbs lawyer says the Army is wrong, and that the killings were legitimate acts in combat situations.
- In the first public hearing involving charges that five soldiers killed three unarmed Afghan civilians and kept fingers and other body parts as trophies, an Army investigator on Monday September 27, 2010, acknowledged that officials have not been able to determine which soldier may have fired the fatal shots because autopsies were not performed on the bodies. Based on records and interviews, four members of the 2nd Stryker Brigade have said that their superior, Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, ordered them to kill the civilians. Morlock gave a lengthy statement to investigators describing his role in the killings.
- An American soldier in Iraq was detained after a heated argument with fellow servicemen ended in the fatal shooting of two and the wounding of another we were told on September 28, 2010. An argument erupted among the soldiers, and Spc. Neftaly Platero was suspected of grabbing his weapon and opening fire on his colleagues during the September 23 incident in Fallujah. Platero is held in pre-trial confinement.
- A U.S. soldier accused of terrorizing unarmed Afghan civilians as part of a rogue infantry platoon in Afghanistan will face a court-martial on murder charges and other offenses we were told on Friday October 15, 2010. Army Spec. Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, is charged with three counts of premeditated murder in the deaths. The charges carry the death penalty. No trial date has been set yet. Morlock and other soldiers from his Stryker Combat Brigade platoon are accused of taking ghoulish photos of corpses and taking body parts as war trophies while deployed to Kandahar province. Morlock is one of five soldiers charged with murder in the case. Seven others are charged with lesser offenses, such as conspiracy.
- A U.S. soldier has been taken into custody after an Afghan detainee was found dead in his cell in southern Afghanistan apparently from a gunshot wound we were told on Tuesday October 19, 2010. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office issued a statement saying Karzai had ordered an investigation into the death. The U.S. military has opened a criminal investigation. The detainee, who died of an apparent gunshot wound, was being held temporarily at an Afghan government facility under U.S. guard.
- On Thursday October 21, 2010, a U.S. Army specialist was charged with killing two fellow American troops and wounding a third during a shooting spree last month in Iraq. Two charges of premeditated murder were filed against Army Specialist Neftaly Platero, who is accused of shooting them to death last month in their living quarters in Fallujah.
- The Canadian military has launched an investigation on October 24, 2010, into claims by an Afghan farmer that troops "totally destroyed" as many as 10 mud-walled homes three years ago in a hamlet in the Horn of Panjwaii in order to protect a small firebase. The New York Times said that when Canadians "immediately came under fire from insurgents," after establishing the base, in Lora in western Panjwaii, "they bulldozed much of the hamlet, flattening houses, water pumps and surrounding orchards." Canada, while admitting there may have been some damage in the area, questioned the extent that was described in the report.
- Three members of the British armed forces could face war crimes charges over the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees we were told on November 10, 2010. The men were all interrogators at a secret prison near Basra during the allied invasion of Iraq in 2003. They have been referred to the Director of Service Prosecutions (DSP) after claims that they were involved in the systematic mistreatment of detainees at a jail dubbed "UK's Abu Ghraib". The disclosure came during proceedings brought on behalf of 222 Iraqi men who are calling for a public inquiry into their treatment at the hands of British forces during the invasion.
- On November 19, 2010, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals has put a temporary
hold on the prosecution of Pfc. Andrew Holmes, a soldier accused of killing
an unarmed Afghan man last January. The court in Virginia is responding to
a motion filed by Holmes' defence counsel, who argued that a restrictive order
limiting access to photos of the victim violated Holmes' right to a public
trial and the presentation of important evidence.
- The first of seven Army soldiers to face court-martial in connection with the deaths of Afghan citizens pleaded guilty Wednesday December 1, 2010, to four of five charges: serious misconduct, lying to investigators about being fired on and having a grenade thrown at his Stryker vehicle, shooting "in the direction of" two Afghan males, throwing a grenade from his vehicle while there was no threat to him or other soldiers, and not disposing of the grenade properly. He pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon on three Afghan males.
- Spc. Jeremy Morlock, the first to be accused of killing Afghan civilians is to face charges in a military courtroom; he could face life in prison without possibility of parole.
- On February 1, 2011, we were told that a soldier who was deployed to Afghanistan is now facing a murder charge after allegedly killing an Afghan prisoner. Private First Class David Lawrence was referred for general court martial on one count of premeditated murder. Lawrence is part of the 1st Battalion, 66th Armour Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. If he is found guilty, he will face life in prison without parole, reduction to E-1, dishonourable discharge, and he will have to give up all of his pay and allowances.
- Suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents and Shiite militiamen are routinely tortured or abused by Iraqi security forces to extract confessions early in their detention and interrogation we were told on February 8, 2011. Prisoners are beaten, stomped on or strung up by their hands during arrest and preliminary interrogations. Suspects are beaten and trampled when they resist arrest and are sometimes tortured when they provoke interrogators by showing "enjoyment" or "pride".
- A mass grave was found February 13, 2011. 153 bodies were found in a grave
about five kilometres south of Baquba. The bodies seemed to have been buried
between 2005 and 2008. During that time the area was under the control of
an al-Qaida linked armed group known as the Islamic State of Iraq. The bodies
were those of civilians, policemen, and soldiers.
- A U.S. Marine was returned to custody Friday February 18, 2011, to serve the last five years of an 11-year sentence for murdering an Iraqi man. Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III reported for custody at Camp Pendleton in southern California. Hutchins was released eight months ago after a military court overturned his conviction for the death of a 52-year-old Iraqi man, ruling his 2007 trial was unfair because his lead defence lawyer quit shortly before it began. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces overruled that decision last month, saying the problem was not grave enough to throw out the conviction.
- An Afghan electrician was taken from his home in a village by U.S. and Afghan soldiers, beaten in a school bathroom and then shot in the head we were told on February 21, 2011. A single deadly shot rang out through the village. A U.S. soldier now faces trial for pulling the trigger. His family said they have been given no compensation and little sense of justice.
- U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the coalition's commander in Afghanistan, issued a rare apology Wednesday Match 2, 2011, for a helicopter strike that killed nine children, hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the allies for launching what he called a "ruthless attack." Nine related boys ages 8 to 14 were killed while collecting firewood in a remote part of Kunar province.
- The face of Jeremy Morlock, a young US soldier, grins at the camera, his hand holding up the head of the dead and bloodied youth he and his colleagues have just killed in an act military prosecutors said on March 21, 2011, was premeditated murder. Moments before the picture was taken in January last year, the unsuspecting victim had been waved over by a group of US soldiers who had driven to his village in Kandahar province in one of their armoured Stryker tanks. According to testimony the boy had, as a matter of routine, lifted up his shirt to reveal that he was not hiding a suicide bomb vest. That was the moment Morlock, according to a pre-arranged plan, threw a grenade at the boy that exploded while other members of the rogue group who called themselves the "kill team" opened fire. They would later tell military investigators that the boy, a farmer's son, had threatened them with the grenade. The pictures include a similar photograph of a different soldier posing with the same victim and a photograph of two other civilians killed by the unit.
- A military judge has sentenced a U.S. soldier to 24 years in prison for
his role in a conspiracy with fellow soldiers that led to the murders of three
unarmed Afghan civilians. The decision by Lt. Col. Kwasi Hawks on Wednesday
March 23, 2011, comes after Spc. Jeremy Morlock pleaded guilty to three counts
of murder, and one count each of conspiracy, obstructing justice and illegal
drug use at his court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The judge said
he intended to sentence Morlock to life in prison with possibility of parole
but he was bound the plea deal that called for a maximum sentence of 24 years.
The 22-year-old Morlock is one of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade
charged in the 2010 killings of three Afghans in Kandahar province. He was
the first to be sent to a court-martial.
- On April 15, 2011, we were told that Iraqi officials have found a mass grave in Anbar province containing the bodies of more than 800 people thought to have been executed during Saddam Hussein's rule. They were shots to the head; there were men, women and children. The remains are thought to be from the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war. Rights groups say there are hundreds of graves in Iraq with the bodies of up to 300,000 people killed under Saddam. The remains would be sent to the health ministry for forensic examination, to match them with the names of soldiers and people who went missing during the Iran-Iraq war. The victims could also be Kurds, against whom Saddam waged military campaigns in the 1980s and 90s, and Shias who staged an uprising in 1991. In 2003, a mass grave containing more than 3,000 bodies was discovered near the farming community of Mahaweel.
- An Army sergeant is set to stand trial in Georgia on capital charges that
he murdered a superior officer and a fellow U.S. soldier in Iraq. Opening
statements in the court-martial of Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich are set to begin
Wednesday April 20, 2011, after the conclusion of more than a week of jury
selection. The trial at Fort Stewart is expected to last several months. The
41-year-old infantryman faces the death penalty if a military jury convicts
him in the September 2008 slayings of his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Darris
Dawson, and Sgt. Wesley Durbin. The shootings took place at a patrol base
south of Baghdad. Witnesses say the victims were shot after they counselled
Bozicevich for poor performance.
- An Army private accused of killing a Taliban prisoner last year in Afghanistan has agreed On May 22, 2011, to plead guilty, according to his attorney, even though several military psychiatrists concluded he was suffering severe mental illness at the time. Pfc. David W. Lawrence is expected to receive a "substantially" reduced sentence for the killing of Mullah Mohebullah, a senior Taliban commander who was shot in the face last October while being guarded by Lawrence at a U.S. detention facility in Kandahar province. Lawrence had been charged with premeditated murder in military court. The plea deal will spare Lawrence from a possible life sentence without parole, the minimum punishment he faced if convicted on the charge under military law. The plea deal is expected to be accepted when court-martial proceedings convene at Ft. Carson, Colo., on Wednesday. Lawrence is likely to serve his sentence at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. Culp would not disclose the reduced sentence agreed to with Army authorities, saying it would be revealed in court. An Army spokesman declined to comment. Lawrence's mental state at the time of the shooting was a matter of intense debate throughout the seven-month case.
- An Iraqi court on Thursday June 16, 2011, sentenced 15 alleged al-Qaida members to death for their role in the 2006 wedding party massacre of 70 people, considered one of the most horrific attacks carried out by Sunni-led militants during the insurgency. The defendants were convicted of planning and carrying out the attack in the mainly Shiite town of Dujail.
- A Connecticut National Guardsman who shot dead an Afghan civilian last year pleaded not guilty to murder during his court martial at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The trial began Monday July 25, 2011, at the Army post on the Tennessee-Kentucky border in the case of Sgt. Derrick Miller, who faces court marital for shooting Atta Mohammed last year. The sergeant shot Mohammed when the Afghan reached for Miller's gun during questioning, defence attorney Charles Gittins said in opening statements. The military prosecution alleges that Miller did "at or near Masamute Bala, Afghanistan, on or about September 26, 2010, with premeditation murder Atta Mohammed, son of Mohammed Akbar, by means of shooting him in the head with an M9, 9 millimetre Beretta pistol." The slain man's son said that, while he was not there at the time, his understanding is that his father, an electrician, apparently was taken from his home by U.S. and Afghan soldiers, beaten in a school bathroom and then shot in the head. Prosecutors said Monday that Miller took another soldier's weapon, straddled the man on the ground and then shot him. Miller is a member of a Connecticut National Guard unit attached to Fort Campbell. The Guardsman must be kept on active duty in order to stay at the post for the court martial. He has not been allowed to leave the post.
- A military judge sentenced a soldier accused of being part of a rogue Army "kill squad" that murdered civilians in Afghanistan to three years in military prison and to receive a bad-conduct discharge Friday August 5, 2011. Army Specialist Adam Winfield pleaded guilty to manslaughter and use of an illegal controlled substance. Winfield is one of six soldiers from the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division who are accused of participating in illegal killings of civilians and covering up the alleged crimes by making it appear as if they were insurgents. An additional six soldiers are accused with lesser crimes in the case, including helping to cover up the killings. With time already served, Winfield will serve about two more years and will be demoted to the rank of private. He will also receive a bad-conduct discharge, rather than the more severe dishonourable discharge.
- Adam Winfield, the Army specialist who warned his parents that soldiers in his unit were executing innocent Afghan civilians, pled guilty Friday August 5, 2011, to reduced charges and was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in one of the murders. Winfield had been charged with premeditated murder, which carried a sentence of life in prison without parole. Winfield is expected to testify against Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who is charged with planning and executing three Afghan civilians between January and May 2010. At Friday's hearing, Winfield told the court he has failed to stop Gibbs and another soldier, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, from killing a detained Afghan.
- Probably to his chagrin, the past week has launched Donald Rumsfeld back into the media spotlight amidst allegations of torture and harsh interrogation techniques. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled Monday August 8, 2011, that two American men can move forward with a civil lawsuit against the former Defence Secretary regarding allegations of torture by the U.S. military in Iraq. Last week, a district judge in Washington let a similar torture allegations case -involving an American translator who worked for the Marines in Iraq- proceed against Rumsfeld. The suit upheld Monday includes unnamed individuals as defendants and it alleges that they, along with Rumsfeld, developed and authorized rights-violating interrogation tactics for use in Iraq in 2006 against the two men, who worked for a private security company at the time. The court's decision acknowledged that the plaintiffs had "alleged sufficient facts to show that Secretary Rumsfeld personally established the relevant policies that caused the alleged violations of their constitutional rights."
- An Army sergeant was sentenced on Wednesday August 10, 2011, to life without
parole for the 2008 murders of two fellow soldiers in Iraq. A 12-member military
jury at Fort Stewart in south Georgia convicted Joseph Bozicevich, 41, of
Minneapolis in May of fatally shooting sergeants Darris Dawson and Wesley
Durbin at the Jurf patrol base in Iskandariyah. The killings occurred after
Bozicevich became angry with the two victims for giving him a poor job performance
review. Bozicevich claimed the killings were in self defence. Because the
military jury's verdict was not unanimous, Bozicevich could not have been
sentenced to death. He had faced life in prison with or without the possibility
of parole. Bozicevich will be jailed at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
- A military appeals court Thursday August 25, 2011, rejected a request that could further delay the court martial of a Marine from Camp Pendleton accused in the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in 2005. The court rejected a request filed on behalf of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich that it order one of his former military defence attorneys, now in private practice in Texas, to rejoin the defence team. Wuterich's rights were not violated when a trial judge at Camp Pendleton allowed the attorney to leave the case, the court ruled. Wuterich "still enjoys the benefits of numerous other defence counsel, some of whom have been serving him for years," the opinion said. Wuterich was the squad leader when Marines swept through three houses in Haditha after a roadside bomb had killed one Marine and injured two others. Twenty-four Iraqis, including three women and seven children, were killed by the Marines. Of eight Marines charged in the incident, only Wuterich has yet to have his case resolved. Six Marines had the charges dismissed, and one was found not guilty. Wuterich remains on duty at Camp Pendleton.
- Negotiations to keep U.S. troops in Iraq came under new strain Friday September 2, 2011, in the wake of WikiLeaks' release of a U.N. letter alleging that an Iraqi family was handcuffed and shot in the head in a 2006 raid by American forces -not accidentally killed in an airstrike. Iraq's government will investigate the new allegations. And some officials said that the document was reason enough for Iraq to force the American military to leave instead of signing a deal allowing troops to stay beyond a year-end departure deadline. On March 15, 2006, U.S. troops searching for an al-Qaida cell converged on a house in Ishaqi. The U.S. military said the troops were hit by gunfire from inside the house, and called in an airstrike after a gun battle, destroying the house. Twelve days later, U.N. investigator Philip Alston sent a letter to U.S. officials saying autopsies by the morgue at nearby Tikrit Hospital had "revealed that all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed." Images taken by an AP photographer shortly after the raid in Ishaqi showed the bodies of at least two men and three children, none in handcuffs, laid out in blankets outside the house. Footage shot by an AP Television News cameraman at the time showed at least five children dead. At least one adult male and four of the children had deep wounds to the head that could have been caused by bullets or shrapnel. One child had an obvious entry wound to the side. The interiors of the walls left standing were pocked with bullet holes.
- Militias and some units of the new local police in Afghanistan are committing serious human rights abuses, a Human Rights Watch report said On Monday September 12, 2011. It says that they are responsible for crimes including killings, rape, arbitrary detention, abductions and forcible land grabs adding that the Afghan government has failed to hold the militias properly to account. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report says that the Afghan government and the US should sever ties with irregular armed groups and take immediate steps to create properly trained and vetted security forces that are held accountable for their actions.
- An Army sergeant accused of killing four fellow soldiers and a Navy officer at a mental health clinic on a military base in Iraq two years ago should be tried for murder but should not face the possibility of execution because he suffers from serious mental illness. Sergeant John Russell, who opened fire at the combat stress centre at Camp Liberty near Baghdad in May 2009, should be held accountable for his actions and face a court martial on the five counts of premeditated murder he faces, Col. James Pohl wrote in his recommendations issued Friday September 16, 2011. However the accused undisputed mental disease or defect make the death penalty inappropriate in this case. An Army general will decide whether to accept the recommendation.
- Pfc. Andrew Holmes on Friday September 23, 2011, received a seven-year
sentence for the 2010 murder of a teenage villager in southern Afghanistan.
In the two-day court-martial, Holmes acknowledged shooting six to eight rounds
from his automatic weapon at the 15-year-old villager -who was unarmed. In
closing arguments, a prosecutor, Major Rob Stelle, pointed to a blown-up picture
of Holmes standing next to the corpse. The sentencing followed a plea deal
reached with prosecutors earlier this week. If the case had gone to trial,
Holmes, if found guilty, would have faced a life sentence.
- A US military court has convicted an American soldier of three counts of premeditated murder for leading a rogue "kill team" in Afghanistan. Sgt Calvin Gibbs admitted cutting and keeping fingers from corpses as war trophies, but said he was returning enemy fire and did not set out to kill. On November 11, 2011 he was given life for 15 convictions related to the killing of three men, but could be paroled within nine years. Three co-defendants in the case pleaded guilty, and two testified against him.
- A U.S. Army sergeant, the eleventh "Kill Team" soldier convicted of crimes in the widest-ranging prosecution of war crimes in the ten years of the Afghanistan War, was sentenced Friday November 18, 2011, to five years in jail for misconduct. David Bram, 27, was found guilty on all but two of nine counts including solicitation to commit murder, conspiracy to commit assault and trying to derail the investigation into the slaying of innocent Afghans. Bram's crimes involved the beating of subordinate soldier, Private Justin Stoner, who had exposed the rampant use of hashish among U.S. troops in Afghanistan and led Army investigators to uncover the heinous crimes of the 'Kill Team," which involved the murdering of villagers for sport.
- The U.S. Army, which has struggled in recent years to combat a mounting
suicide toll, took an unusual step when it announced Wednesday December 21,
2011, that it had charged eight American soldiers serving in Afghanistan in
connection with the apparent suicide of one of their lower-ranking comrades.
The charges in the death of Pvt. Danny Chen came after a vigorous, weeks-long
campaign by advocacy groups and family members hoping to pressure the Pentagon
to investigate allegations that Chen had been the subject of hazing within
the ranks and had been repeatedly taunted with racial slurs. On October 3,
Chen was found dead in a guard tower at a small combat outpost in Kandahar
province. He was killed by an "apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound".
- On January 18, 2012, we were told that the military police are investigating allegations of child abuse by two British soldiers in Afghanistan. The separate incidents were filmed and shown to colleagues on laptop computers.
- A clandestine jail and alleged torture site under the control of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki continues to operate more than a year after the government ordered it shut down, Human Rights Watch claimed Tuesday May 15, 2012. The group also called for the Iraqi government to appoint an independent commission to investigate "continuing allegations of torture" and disappearances.
- A sergeant accused of killing five comrades at a combat stress clinic at
a U.S. base in Iraq more than three years ago is mentally fit to stand trial
on charges of premeditated murder. The Army announced the charges Friday May
18, 2012, against Sgt. John M. Russell, who faces a possible death penalty
if convicted of one of the worst cases of soldier-on-soldier violence to arise
during the war in Iraq. Russell was charged with five counts of premeditated
murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of attempted murder
in the May 11, 2009, shooting spree at the Combat Stress Centre at Camp Liberty,
a sprawling U.S. military base at the time on the outskirts of Baghdad.
- Four former U.S. military advisors in Afghanistan testified to Congress Tuesday July 24, 2012, that the Army general in charge of the NATO Training Mission there tried to delay an investigation into alleged human suffering and corruption at Dawood National Military Hospital, funded primarily with U.S. tax dollars. The military whistleblowers, two of them still on active duty, say they discovered "Auschwitz"-like atrocities in 2010 at the hospital for wounded Afghan soldiers: open vats of blood draining from soldier's wounds, feces on the floor, and Afghan doctors and nurses demanding bribes to provide patients with food and basic care. According to the witnesses, patients routinely starved to death, were operated on without sedatives, and died of simple infections. Army Colonel Mark Fassl was NATO's Training Mission Afghanistan Command Inspector General in 2010. He says when he requested the inspector general to investigate the hospital, he was admonished by the three-star general in charge, Lt. General William Caldwell. Another advisor in Afghanistan, Col. Gerald Carozza, says Caldwell's deputy delivered a similar message: that the general was upset that Fassl had asked for an independent investigation "so close to the (2010 midterm) election." Fassl says he followed orders to take back his request for an investigation. But U.S. advisors began documenting the horrors and eventually blew the whistle to and Congress.
- An Army brigadier general who served five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan has been charged with forcible sodomy, multiple counts of adultery and having inappropriate relationships with several female subordinates we were told on Wednesday September 26, 2012. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair faces possible courts martial on charges that include forced sex, wrongful sexual conduct, violating an order, possessing pornography and alcohol while deployed, and misusing a government travel charge card and filing fraudulent claims. Sinclair, who served as deputy commander in charge of logistics and support for the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, was sent home in May because of the allegations. Sinclair was informed of the charges on Monday but has not been placed under arrest. The next step will be an Article 32 investigation, including a preliminary hearing to determine if the matter should go to trial. No date has been set for the hearing, which would be open to the public.
- A preliminary hearing began Monday November 5, 2012, for the U.S. soldier accused of carrying out one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is charged with 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder for a pre-dawn attack on two villages in Kandahar Province last March. Among the victims were nine children. Bales is accused of slipping away from a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan early on March 11 with an M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher to attack the villages of Balandi and Alkozai, in the dangerous Panjwai district. The officer overseeing the hearing is charged with recommending whether Bales' case should proceed to a court-martial.
- A U.S. Army DNA expert testified Thursday November 8, 2012, that the soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians during a nighttime rampage last March had the blood of at least four people on his clothes and guns when he surrendered. The blood of two males and two females was discovered on Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' pants, shirt, gloves, rifle and other items. Afghan villagers and soldiers are expected to testify by video from Afghanistan. The witness list for Friday night includes two Afghan National Army guards, two victims and four relatives of victims. Bales, a 39-year-old Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., could face the death penalty if ultimately convicted of 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder in the March 11 attack in southern Afghanistan. Prosecutors say that Bales dressed in a T-shirt, cape and night vision goggles, without any body armor, and slipped away from his remote post, Camp Belambay. He first attacked one village, returned to the base, and headed out again to attack another village.
- A 7-year-old Afghan girl testified Sunday November 11, 2012, that she hid behind her father as he was shot and killed during a shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan that was carried about by an American soldier. The girl, identified as Robina, was one of a handful of Afghan children called to testify via satellite during an evidentiary hearing held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Washington to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support the military's case against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. Bales is charged with 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder in the March 11 predawn attack on two villages in southern Afghanistan's Panjwai district.
- A U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow servicemen at a military combat stress center in Baghdad in 2009 will face an arraignment at a military base in Washington state on Monday November 19, 2012, preparing the way for a trial that could result in the death penalty. Sergeant John Russell, of the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, is accused of going on a shooting spree at Camp Liberty, near the Baghdad airport. The soldier faces five charges of premeditated murder, one charge of aggravated assault and one charge of attempted murder. Two of the five people killed in the shooting were medical staff officers at the counseling center for troops experiencing combat stress. The others were soldiers.
- On Saturday December 15, 2012, a former British army doctor has been found guilty of dishonest conduct over the death of an Iraqi prisoner. The charges against Dr Derek Keilloh date back to 2003, when hotel receptionist Baha Mousa died after being arrested by British soldiers in Basra. Mousa suffered 93 separate injuries while in their custody -but Dr Keilloh had repeatedly denied any knowledge of the injuries. Now, a medical watchdog has found him guilty of acting dishonestly and failing to protect detainees.
- On Sunday January 20, 2013, we were told that Britain will face fresh charges of breaching international law over the alleged torture and killing of prisoners during the war in Iraq. The allegations will be unveiled in the high court, when Britain will stand accused of a "systemic" policy of abuse committed over five years, from 2003 to 2008. At a hearing scheduled over three days from 29 January, lawyers for 180 Iraqis who claim they are victims of abuse, or that their family members were unlawfully killed, will place a file of statements before two judges presiding over the court in London accusing British soldiers and intelligence officers of unlawful interrogation practices. These include hooding and the use of "stress positions", sexual abuse, beating and religious abuse of illegally detained prisoners. In some cases, the testimonies allege, the torture led to the death of the prisoner. The court will rule on whether the abuses were isolated incidents of which commanders, senior ministry officials and politicians were unaware, as the government insists, or "systemic" and authorised as policy. The MoD contends that any general problems of detention and interrogation were dealt with by an inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, an innocent hotel worker killed while in British custody in Basra in 2003, and continuing internal investigations by its own Iraq Historic Allegations Team.
- Afghan authorities are still torturing prisoners, such as hanging them by their wrists and beating them with cables, the United Nations said on Sunday January 20, 2013. The latest report shows little progress in curbing abuse in Afghan prisons despite efforts by the U.N. and international military forces in Afghanistan. The slow progress on prison reform has prompted NATO forces to once again stop many transfers of detainees to Afghan authorities out of concern that they would be tortured. In multiple detention centres, Afghan authorities leave detainees hanging from the ceiling by their wrists, beat them with cables and wooden sticks, administer electric shocks, twist their genitals and threaten to shove bottles up their anuses or to kill them.
- A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty to murder on Monday April 22, 2013, for shooting dead five fellow servicemen at a military counselling centre in Iraq, after his defence attorneys reached a deal with Army prosecutors to avoid capital punishment. Army Sergeant John Russell is accused of killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 shooting spree the military said at the time could have been triggered by combat stress. State to five counts of intentional murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of assault.
- More than a year after video footage of U.S. Marine snipers purportedly urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan surfaced on YouTube, setting off a storm of controversy in the Middle East, the officer in charge of that platoon will be court-martialed for his alleged misconduct we were told on Monday May 13, 2013. Capt. James V. Clement will be tried for dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming an officer and failure to stop misconduct by junior Marines, four of whom can be seen in the widely circulated video laughing and joking as they urinate on the bodies of what are believed to be dead Taliban insurgents.
- U.S. Army Sgt. John Russell was found guilty of premeditated murder in the 2009 deaths of five service personnel in a mental health facility in Iraq. Col. David L. Conn, the military judge who delivered the verdict Monday May 13, 2013, at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington, rejecting the defence’s plea to consider severe depression and post-combat stress they argued led to sergeant to commit the killings.
- A US soldier who killed five colleagues at a base in Iraq has been sentenced to life in jail. Russell, who previously denied responsibility, admitted the killings last month in a plea deal to escape a death sentence. On Thursday May 16, 2013, he was jailed for life, reduced to the rank of private and given a dishonourable discharge from the military. Russell was on his third tour of duty in Iraq, and his unit was preparing to leave the country.
- The Army staff sergeant charged with slaughtering 16 villagers during one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war has agreed to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty we were told on Wednesday May 29, 2013. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is scheduled to enter guilty pleas to charges of premeditated murder June 5. A sentencing-phase trial set for September will determine whether he is sentenced to life in prison with or life without the possibility of parole. The judge and commanding general must approve a plea deal.
- On Tuesday June 4, 2013, one British soldier has been fined and another has had his rank reduced at a court martial after admitting abusing civilians in Afghanistan. At the hearing in Germany, one soldier admitted pulling an Afghan boy's hand towards his crotch; the other admitted racially abusing an Afghan man. Their patrol commander was cleared of failing to deal with the offences. The three men have been granted anonymity amid fears naming them would endanger them and their families.
- Afghan officials confirmed Sunday July 7, 2013, that they had arrested and were questioning Zakaria Kandahari, whom they have described as an Afghan-American interpreter responsible for torturing and killing civilians while working for an American Special Forces unit.
- One of the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan who filmed themselves urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters in 2011 has spoken out about the incident on Wednesday July 17, 2013. Sgt. Joseph Chamblin said the sniper team he led was on a mission to stop the Taliban insurgents making roadside bombs. “These were the same guys that were killing our family, killing our brothers,” he said. One soldier, Sgt. Mark Bradley, was killed by an IED blast days before the incident. “We’re human,” Chamblin said. “Who wouldn’t (want to get revenge) if you lost your brother or mother? Wouldn’t you want revenge?” Chamblin told the outlet that after a gun battle in enemy territory, nearly a dozen Taliban insurgents were dead, and he and his colleagues were ordered to recover the bodies. These people are dirt.
- Last summer, days into a new assignment leading a platoon in southern Afghanistan, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army asked one of his soldiers to open fire on two Afghan men on motorcycles. On Thursday evening, August 2, 2013, jurors convicted the 28-year-old Lorance of murder, siding with prosecutors who portrayed his order as a reckless contravention of the rules of engagement. Lorance was sentenced to 20 years in prison, forfeiture of pay and dismissal from the military.
The Iraq abuse inquiry was told on Wednesday September 4, 2013, that British soldiers stamped on the head of a dead Iraqi and fired into the “twitching” bodies of mortally wounded insurgents. Soldiers also kicked and punched a young detainee in the face after he was captured in one of the heaviest gun battles fought by British troops during the Iraq campaign. Duncan Aston gave details of the alleged abuse as he recalled intense close quarters fighting in a clash known as the Battle of Danny Boy. Mr Aston, then an 18-year-old private with the 2nd Battalion Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, became the first soldier to allege abuses to the Al-Sweady public inquiry investigating claims British soldiers killed and tortured captives after the battle in 2004. It is claimed that 20 or more Iraqis were unlawfully killed at Camp Abu Naji near Majar-al-Kabir on May 14 and 15 2004, and detainees were ill-treated there and later at Shaibah Logistics Base. Mr Aston said the Royal Military Police later quizzed him about his role in battle, but he did not tell them of what he had seen. Colonel Adam Griffiths earlier told the investigation he had not heard anything about detainees being mistreated and dismissed claims that bodies had been mutilated as "baseless rumours". The inquiry continues.
Three British Royal Marines executed a wounded insurgent in Afghanistan by shooting him in the chest we were told on Thursday October 24, 2013. The Commandos –known only as Marines A, B and C– then reported the man had been killed by gunfire from an Apache helicopter. The victim had been wounded by a helicopter which “legitimately” fired 139 rounds following an attack by two insurgents on a British base in Helmand Province. He was “seriously injured” but still alive when the patrol was sent out to assess the damage to a corn field.
On Friday November 8, 2013, a British Royal Marine has been found guilty by a military court of murdering an injured Afghan insurgent, in what the prosecution called "an execution". The sergeant, known only as Marine A, faces a mandatory life term over the shooting of the unknown man while on patrol in Helmand Province, in 2011. Two other marines, known as B and C, were acquitted of murder. It is the first time British forces have faced a murder charge in relation to the conflict in Afghanistan.
A U.S. Army soldier has been charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of two civilians during the Iraq war. A Joint Base Lewis-McChord release on Friday November 15, 2013, says that Sgt. 1st Class Michael Barbera was charged for the 2007 killings. The charges stem from an investigation into the shootings of two people near the village of As Sadah in the Diyala Province on March 6, 2007. --
The Obama administration has until early December to detail its reasons for withholding as many as 2,100 graphic photographs depicting US military torture of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge ordered on Tuesday October 21, 2014. By 12 December, Justice Department attorneys will have to list, photograph by photograph, the government’s rationale for keeping redacted versions of the photos unseen by the public, Judge Alvin Hellerstein instructed lawyers. But any actual release of the photographs will come after Hellerstein reviews the government’s reasoning and issues another ruling in the protracted transparency case. While Hellerstein left unclear how much of the Justice Department’s declaration will itself be public, the government’s submission is likely to be its most detailed argument for secrecy over the imagery in a case that has lasted a decade.
Four former Blackwater Worldwide security guards were convicted and immediately jailed Wednesday October 22, 2014, for their roles in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisour Square that marked a bloody nadir in America’s war in Iraq. A jury in Federal District Court found that the deaths of 17 Iraqis in the shooting, which began when a convoy of the guards suddenly began firing in a crowded intersection, was not a battlefield tragedy, but the result of a criminal act. The convictions on murder, manslaughter and weapons charges represented a legal and diplomatic victory for the United States government, which had urged Iraqis to put their faith in the American court system. That faith was tested repeatedly over seven years as the investigation had repeated setbacks, leaving Iraqis deeply suspicious that anyone would be held responsible for the deaths. ---
Federal prosecutors called on a federal judge to impose lengthy prison terms at sentencing Monday April 13, 2015, for four Blackwater Worldwide guards convicted in the 2007 shooting that killed 14 unarmed Iraqis and injured others in a Baghdad traffic circle. Three were found guilty by a District federal jury in October of multiple counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in the incident at Baghdad’s Nisour Square. A fourth man Tenn., was convicted of murder in the incident, in which American security contractors fired machine guns and grenades into halted noonday traffic, a low point of the U.S. war in Iraq that sent relations between the two countries into a crisis. Jurors found that the defendants, at the time among 19 Blackwater guards providing security for State Department officials in Iraq, shot recklessly and out of control after one of them falsely claimed that their convoy, called Raven 23, was threatened by a car bomber. The guards claimed they acted in self-defense under incoming AK-47 gunfire as they cleared a path back to the nearby Green Zone for another Blackwater team that was evacuating a U.S. official from a nearby car bombing.
One former employee of the private Blackwater Worldwide security company was sentenced Monday April 13, 2015, to life in prison and three others to 30 years each behind bars for their roles in a 2007 mass shooting in Baghdad that left 17 people dead. A federal jury convicted the four in October after a lengthy trial that saw some 30 witnesses travel from Iraq to testify against the security contractors. Prosecutors accused the men of illegally unleashed "powerful sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers on innocent men, women and children." According to prosecutors, the four were among seven Blackwater employees who opened fire in the Nusoor Square traffic circle in Baghdad, killing 17 people. An FBI investigation found 14 of the deaths unjustified, according to rules of engagement for private security contractors in Iraq. Blackwater said its convoy came under attack, and defense attorneys said in court that witness accounts were fabricated. But witnesses testified that the contractors opened fire without provocation. ---
Hours-long beatings, stabbings, repeated sexual assault and music as torture: Just some of the abuses inflicted upon Iraqi people by British soldiers during their occupation of Iraq. The horrifying allegations are contained in documents sent by the Birmingham-based firm Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) to the ICC, which ended an initial inquiry into alleged crimes committed by UK forces in Iraq in 2006 citing a lack of evidence, but went on to reopen the preliminary examination last year. According to the allegations compiled by PIL, which span more than five years, from the 2003 US-led invasion until 2008, detainees were commonly beaten, made to wear black-out goggles, and left hooded —making breathing difficult— for hours following their initial arrest by British forces. They were kicked and hit with guns if they moved or asked for explanations for their detention. In some cases, detainees were allegedly threatened with execution. Several of the claims describe the use of electric shocks to torture Iraqis. Sleep deprivation, triggered by booming music, shouting, or the hurling of objects, also featured prominently in some accounts. One particularly disturbing claim was brought on behalf of a man reportedly killed by British forces in April 2007. The 26-year-old was living with his wife and one-month-old daughter when soldiers allegedly entered his neighborhood.