Posted on 06/30/2006 12:25:24 PM PDT by 60Gunner
BEIJI, Iraq - Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official said Friday.
The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting in the March incident, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The U.S. command issued a sparse statement, saying Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of coalition troops in Baghdad, had ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged killing of a family of four in Mahmoudiyah, south of Baghdad. The statement had no other details.
The case represents the latest allegations against U.S. soldiers stemming from the deaths of Iraqis. At least 14 U.S. troops have been convicted.
The United States also is investigating allegations that two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha on Nov. 19 in a revenge attack after one of their own died in a roadside bombing.
"The entire investigation will encompass everything that could have happened that evening. We're not releasing any specifics of an ongoing investigation," military spokesman Maj. Todd Breasseale said of the Mahmoudiyah allegations.
"There is no indication what led soldiers to this home. The investigation just cracked open. We're just beginning to dig into the details."
However, a U.S. official close to the investigation said at least one of the soldiers, all assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, has admitted his role and been arrested. Two soldiers from the same regiment were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah.
The official told the AP the accused soldiers were from the same platoon as the two slain soldiers. The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded.
The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one of them to reveal the rape-slaying on June 22.
One of the accused soldiers already has been discharged and is believed to be in the United States, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The others have had their weapons taken away and are confined to Forward Operating Base Mahmoudiyah.
The official said the killings appear to be unrelated to the kidnappings. He said those involved were all below the rank of sergeant.
Senior officers were aware of the family's death but believed it was due to sectarian violence, common in the religiously mixed town, he said.
The killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," the official said. The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.
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AP correspondent Ryan Lenz is embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in Beiji, Iraq. He was previously embedded with the 502nd Infantry Regiment in Mahmoudiyah.
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The Associated Press News and Information Research Center contributed to this report.
Our soldiers are in a death struggle with savages. If they fight back just as savagly, so be it.
When a population allows terrorists to hide behind them, to raid from ambush and meld back into the civilian population, it is that populations own fault if they receive casualties.
pART of the civilian population in Iraq is the enemy. Which part? Dig/
Well, my response to that would be that American troops have historically been known for their compassion and generosity, even to captured enemy troops, and toward the civilian population among whom they work. When a story like this, or Abu Ghraib, or Haditha, or any of the other ones comes out, it impugns the character of the troops both in theater and around the world.
The Iraqis already know that our military deals swiftly and decisively with people who mistreat them. I'll bet thet the Iraqi response to this will be, "If they are guilty, then they will be dealt with." This story will not change that.
But the media have given American servicemen have yet another black eye, and I want that to stop. I want to see our generals and admirals expend more energy defending our troops against this kind of slander, and I would like them to start by discontinuing the ridiculous and detrimental practice of imbedding media with units in-theater.
BINGO
Certainly the presumption of innocence should apply. If this story is true, however, then it's true and there's no defense for it. The worst part of this is that some of the drive-by Media "journalists" are speculating that the recent torture/mutilation murder of two GI prisoners was "in retaliation for this act" (even though the Jihadis claimed it was revenge for Zarqawi).
But raping a young woman and murdering her and her family are not in the ROE (that's assuming that this story is true, which I am NOT). Rape and murder are war crimes. The SS and the Japanese did that as a matter of policy in WW2.
Americans are set apart from other combatants because we do not do such things, and we punish to the maximum extent of the law those who are caught doing it. This is only right.
-- snip --
Ryan Lenz of the Associated Press reports that five U.S. Army soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Regiment are charged with the rape of a young Iraqi female and the murders of the female and three members of her family. Lenz quotes military spokesman Maj. Todd Breasseale as saying simply, "We're not releasing any specifics of an ongoing investigation."
You have to remember that the soldiers are from the same company then the two soldiers were that had been recently kidnapped tortured and killed. So you have to ask yourselves when did the alledged incident happen, and remeber it is only alledged. Did it happen before the soldiers were kidnapped and killed or did it happen before they were kidnapped and killed?
The various commands issue press releases all the time. This story is obviously based on at least one of them and from unnamed officials. Would you rather the reporter not have written the piece? Seems to me there is a plenty of "shooting the messenger" on this and other threads. BTW, the title of the thread doesn't match what's at the link.
This is exactly what is happening, in my opinion. The question now is... are we seeing journalistic complicity in this new and dangerous form of fraud? My guess is that ALL of so far 5 or 6 widely publicized cases of US troops committing some sort of blatant atrocity, fit this pattern. All are fabricated by savvy Iraqis and others who are sympathetic or involved with the terrorists, familiar with the easily stampeded Western Press and its hot buttons. Now, they are pressing them, all at once. This alone should be suspect,... that all this is starting to happen now and under such similar circumstances.
It has been a long time since I trusted the media's reporting about Iraq, Iran, and most other places on the face of this rock.
No.
I will stick with our American military through thick or thin. They are up against very strange forces.
Pawdoggie, you are right, and I stated as much in my commentary. Such an act, if it was indeed committed, is indefensible; no doubt about it. But there is time enough to learn the facts. Yet as I write this, Fox is broadcasting it every fifteen minutes on the radio. Sometimes even they cause me to shake my head in despair.
Fox is reporting that the incident occurred last March (Just heard).
I would rather have a story in which ALL the sources are verifiable. Otherwise it's really just another gossip column, isn't it?
The new info was 2 soldiers heard it from other soldiers and only disclosed it during a stress debriefing after their friends got killed (the 2 soldiers kidnapped and murdered) but neither was actually there.
No to which?
Well, something else that Fox is saying is that the Army acted on a tip from a soldier who overheard others talking about the incident. That's hearsay in a court of law.
On the one hand, we have hearsay. On the other, we have unverifiable sources. This is stinky.
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