Posted on 11/15/2004 4:49:43 PM PST by Cornpone
The US military is looking into whether an American marine in Falluja shot dead a severely wounded Iraqi insurgent at point-blank range. Television footage shows US soldiers entering a building as injured prisoners lie on the floor.
The soldier, from the 3rd battalion of the US marines, has been removed from the field and faces possible charges.
The images were taken by an NBC reporter embedded with the US troops in the Sunni city under assault.
The BBC's James Robbins says the incident could prove highly damaging and that the US military will need to answer key questions about whether the rules of engagement were broken during the incident.
It must explain, he says, whether wounded combatants were abandoned, or killed, illegally.
Mosque stormed
US marines have been battling with sporadic but fierce pockets of resistance inside the city. They say they have already killed 1,200 insurgents.
The images show a group of marines, armed with rifles, entering a building near a mosque.
The mosque had been used by insurgents to attack US forces, who had stormed it, killing 10 militants and wounding five.
At least three severely wounded men are seen in a room inside the building - two are slumped against one of the walls, partially covered with a blanket.
The NBC's Kevin Sites says the wounded men had been left in the mosque after marines had fought their way in on Friday and Saturday.
According to Mr Sites, one of the soldiers points his rifle at the head of one of the injured, an old man. The sound of a shot is then heard.
There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon on the report.
Since this happened in a battle zone, I am going to assume that the Marine in question was following the appropriate rules until I hear differently from the Pentagon. If the Marine is not fit to wear the uniform, he will be court marshaled. If there is another explanation, it will be forthcoming without using biased words(old, wounded,heard). The BBC can kiss my old sneakers. The embedded reporter did exactly what he was supposed to do; he witnessed a possible execution and reported it to the Unit Commander and to his newsroom.
Bill O'Reilly is a POS!
God bless you and your brother, and thanks for your service to our country. One thing for sure, your brother will have millions of supporters, no matter what the communist media try to make of this. Your brother's a hero in my book.
F--- O'Reilly. He's as bad as the rest of them.
The national networks must get their act together or be taken off the air. After all, they are using our electromagnetic spectrum.
Traitor NBC photographer email address:
kevin@kevinsites.net
***The terrorist didn't surrender, he played dead. Might have had a grenade, I see it as self defense.***
Darn straight!
(And I'm a woman and I still say that.)
They were warned IN ADVANCE to leave or face the consequences. He faced the consequences. How much of this took place during WWI & WW2, Korean Conflict (War), Vietnam? It could be that this was a mercy killing, the soldier seeing that this enemy soldier was in extreme pain and appeared to be beyond recovery. A single still picture does not paint the full picture. In fact, it can be used to fulminate hatred toward a designated group by people who have an agenda. Was their captions or explanations by the photographer as to what he saw, and did he take the picture after the fact or did he observe the entire scene? There is great number of possibilities in one photo that a very detailed explanation should follow. Otherwise,the photograper can make it into anything he wants it become.
Were there other military personnel present who saw this entire incident? Who were they? What were their rank? Was the soldier told to shoot by superiors? Was it done in a fit of rage because of a fallen fellow soldier who was close to him? Or was it through a cold hearted, calculated killing?
What's the problem?
All he has to say is "I thought he was reaching for a pistol"....case closed.
It's easy to say what a soldier should and shouldn't do when sitting in a nice air conditioned office or in the comfort of one's home. War is war and there is no playing nice. It's kill or be killed, just because someone is wounded doesn't mean they don't still have the ability to raise a weapon and fire it. The insurgents aren't playing by any rules, what the hell were they doing in a Mosque (a place that is supposed to be Holy) anyway, because they were banking on the Americans not infiltrating a place that is supposed to be Holy. I'm not saying we should kill just for the sake of killing, but I'm so sick of these bleeding hearts that have no concept of what they are talking about. I dare them to come up with a better plan and I would certainly like to see what they would do in the same situation. The grass is always greener on the other side when you've never stepped foot outside of your condo.
So friggen what?
If a bastard plays dead and then wiggles, blast him, not once, but twice.
The sodier in question had earlier been shot in the face, less than a block away a terr perp had played possum with a supposedly deady body and then a bomb went off killing one GI and wounding others.
I would make sure every damned one of them is througly dead, and I mean DEAD.
John F'n sKerry shot a wounded kid in the back, just ran for prez, he got a SS and used it to no end to impress the leftist MSM and the guilible lefties.
Faking it....Not faking it.....Tie goes to the shooter
I call 'em as I see 'em. Reality is a bi*ch sometimes.
I agree with the rest of your post, and what would disturb me also would be...
Marines offing wounded enemy combatants for the sport of it.
Besides the ROE, it is all a matter of intent.
5.56mm
That is happening to the msm slowly but surely looking at each year's income statement.
5.56mm
The US military is looking into whether an American marine in Falluja shot dead a severely wounded Iraqi insurgent at point-blank range. Television footage shows US soldiers entering a building as injured prisoners lie on the floor.
How does the BBC know the extent and severity of the terrorist's injuries? How do they know he was an Iraqi? These terrorists were NOT already classified as prisoners, as the story leads one to believe. And there have been reports of terrorists retaking positions in mosques AFTER the Marines have been through them once.
It must explain, he says, whether wounded combatants were abandoned, or killed, illegally.
Spoken as though this was some kind of "normal" war. No mention of the fact they wear no uniforms, they murder innocents in snuff video, etc. etc. No mention of the fact that a Marine was killed by a terrorist pretending to be dead and then detonating a hand grenade just recently. No mention of the fact that one of the terrorists finally managed to signal "surrender" AFTER the one was shot dead. Why didn't he do it right away?
I'm getting bitter here. I am really starting to hate journalists. Even Fox News Channel referred to the shooting as an "execution!"
To be fair to O'Reilly, I just watched his first segment on the subject and he and his guest were both very insistent that there had recently been instances in very close proximity to this one in which Iraqi "insurgents" faked death or surrender, only to open fire when the US troops drew near. They seemed to frame in a way that was NOT damaging to our guys--quite the opposite, in fact, pointing out that such deceptive actions by the enemy are ILLEGAL under war conventions.
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