Posted on 04/15/2007 3:43:38 AM PDT by leadpenny
KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. Marine unit broke international humanitarian law by using excessive force during a shooting spree last month that left 12 people dead, an Afghan human rights group said in a report Saturday.
The troops fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, people in cars, public buses and taxis in six different locations along a 10-mile stretch of road in Nangahar province after an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into their convoy on March 4, according to the report by
Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission.
Six people were killed near the blast site, while the other six died on the road as the troops sped away, said Ahmad Nader Nadery, the group's spokesman.
The dead included a 1-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and three women, the report said. Thirty-five people were wounded in the shootings.
"In failing to distinguish between civilians and legitimate military targets the U.S. Marines Corps Special Forces employed indiscriminate force," the report said. "Their actions thus constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law standards."
The group said its report was based on interviews with victims and their families, witnesses, local community leaders, hospital officials and police.
A U.S. military commander has also determined that the Marines used excessive force and referred the case for possible criminal inquiry, a senior U.S. defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
U.S. military officials said after the incident that the suicide attack was part of an ambush that included militant gunmen shooting at Marines, which may have caused some of the civilian casualties.
The human rights group's report said "there is some evidence at the immediate site of the incident to support this claim, but it is far from conclusive and all witnesses and Afghan government officials interviewed uniformly denied that any attack beyond the initial (suicide car bombing) took place."
The group also alleges that U.S. troops serving with
NATO's International Security Assistance Force in southern Afghanistan returned to the area after the bombing for an investigation and a cleanup operation, which involved the removal of all bullet shells and cartridges.
The group said it interviewed a member of Afghanistan's National Police criminal investigations office who said his unit had searched around the site after the incident, but that "ISAF forces had collected all shells, magazines, cartridges from the spot and we could not find any trace or sign of them."
U.S. military officials were not available to comment on that allegation.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly pleaded for Western troops to show more restraint amid concern that civilian deaths shake domestic support for the foreign military involvement that he needs to prop up his government, increasingly under threat from a resurgent Taliban.
The initial U.S. military investigation concluded that the Marines' response was "out of proportion to the threat that was immediately there," the senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday in Washington.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe's results have not been released. The findings have been forwarded to U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the initial military investigation concluded that there was a "reasonable suspicion" the Marines violated the rules for the use of deadly force, and that crimes, possibly including homicide, may have been committed in the aftermath of the convoy being struck.
One Marine was wounded in the blast, which also killed the bomber.
Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, opened an investigation into the incident after taking the highly unusual step of ordering the unit of about 120 Marines out of Afghanistan.
"We deeply regret the loss of life and casualties that resulted from the (suicide car bombing) and the actions that followed," Lt. Col. Lou Leto, spokesman at Kearney's command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said in a statement. "We will work to prevent similar events from occurring in the future."
The Marines are in a special operations unit that deployed from Camp LeJeune, N.C., in January with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. After Kearney ordered them out of Afghanistan, they returned to their unit's ships in the Persian Gulf.
The unit is one of four Marine Special Operations Command companies established since the command was created in February 2006. The one ordered out of Afghanistan was the first to deploy abroad.
It is illegal to kill the enemy.
It is illegal to fight back.
When those domestic nukes go off, and Hillary is president, it will be illegal to speak badly of Islam for fear of another nuke.
The war on terror has become Vietnam: surrender, before we win it.
Yes,siree bob, it's thinking like that that carried us into Berlin and Toyko.(/sarcasm)
Something happened to give this story legs. I think the entire chain of command is still reeling from the Pat Tillman incident and, when I see that children and infants have died, the shadow of My Lai plays a role. No commander wants even a hint of a cover-up hanging over their head at this point.
When you have attacks against Marines they should shoot to protect themselves NOT be politically correct.
The Human Rights Commission and all of there friends should be embedded in convoys. Large unmarked trucks filled with them so they can watch in all directions for excessive force.The most senior members could ride on top of each vehicle for the best view.
Fox is carrying water
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266128,00.html
Yo. Over here.
The press and human rights advocates are accustomed to non total war, and zero collateral damage.
When Islamofascist guerrillas mix with the civilian public, the public needs to turn them in.
War is tragedy, and I do not blame our Marines for waging war as they must.
Pity they transferred them out of the theater. Sounds like they should be designated a prime reactive and offensive strike force. They have the experience of suffering themselves for causing civilian deaths, a thing Marines deplore when it happens. Ask the Toys for Tots Marines.
Support is More Than Words
April 14th, 2007
[Note: The following would have been my entry into the Soldier’s Mind essay contest. However, for integrity’s sake, I am not entering the contest. I will simply post it here.]
–by Kit Jarrell
For many Americans, “supporting the troops” is an abstract concept, a broad statement referring to a vague obligation that is easily fulfilled with a $2.99 magnetic ribbon from the corner gas station. Slap it on the back of your vehicle, and you’re an official troop supporter—whatever that is, and minus the decoder ring. It doesn’t require any kind of real commitment, no debate skills, no standing up and taking fire from your liberal neighbors. Above all, it doesn’t require you to see or hear anything that might disturb the relatively pleasant rat race that is life in America: going to the mall, talking on your cell phone while impatiently waiting for the light to change, or grilling steaks and hoisting a beer with friends.
This is not support.
A select few Americans truly understand what “supporting the troops” means—and most of them have paid for it themselves in some form or another. Behind the bumper stickers and patriotic shirts, past taking off your hat at the start of a baseball game or going to the Memorial Day parade, there is an ethos, a mentality, a code of conduct. Supporting the troops means understanding the incredible gift you were given, the beautiful ideal that was offered you on the flag-draped casket of a man who you will never meet—who chose to die for you.
It is more than complaining to the television during the news—it is holding your legislators responsible for foolish decisions and laws that tie the hands of the troops and cost lives.
It is more than parroting the words “Thanks for your service” to a veteran while trying not to look at the place where his arm or leg once was.
It is more than words. It is a way of life.
Supporting the troops means living your life in a manner that is worthy of their death. It means ensuring, every minute of every day, that the words you speak, the actions you take, the beliefs you hold, are ones that honor them and honor the freedom they have provided to you. It means carrying yourself proudly, ethically, and with purpose.
It means never backing down, never giving up, never quitting. It means taking the time to make a difference in someone’s life—after all, did a soldier not make a difference in yours?
It means teaching your children that places like Normandy, Iwo Jima, and Bastogne are sacred, almost holy phrases that encompass all that we are and all that we must remain. It means getting off your chair and doing your part—whether that be reading to a double amputee fresh from the dusty hell of Iraq, packing granola bars into a box to be sent to the front, or just not ignoring those who are ignorant any longer. How many times have we all just sighed and rolled our eyes when we hear “I support the troops but not the war?”
Evil triumphs when good men do nothing…or say nothing.
Supporting the troops means loving your country enough to live for her, to be willing to do whatever, wherever, and for however long it takes to ensure that the Marines whose blood stained an enemy’s bayonet at Belleau Wood died for something more than your next Starbucks latte. We owe them that.
At least.
http://www.gatheringofeagles.org/
I truly hope one of the Marines had a helmet cam on.
They are not going to be allowed to win it, Race.The best they can hope for is to survive their tour without being killed or maimed for life.
The only question is, how many are going to be prosecuted for trying to protect their lives?
As far as International Law goes,the terrorists have been vio;ating it for years. And everyone has been quite as a church mouse about it.
Wow, this sounds really familiar!
...”The group said its report was based on interviews with victims and their families, witnesses, local community leaders, hospital officials and police.”....
....”A U.S. military commander has also determined that the Marines used excessive force and referred the case for possible criminal inquiry”....
....”The initial U.S. military investigation concluded... response was “out of proportion to the threat that was immediately there,” “...
And finally, ...”Another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity....crimes, possibly including homicide, may have been committed”...
HOMICIDE?! It’s the Afghanistan Haditha.
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