Posted on 03/28/2003 11:04:35 PM PST by SlickWillard
March 29, 2003, 12:21AM
WITH V CORPS HEADQUARTERS NEAR THE KUWAIT BORDER -- The bodies of four American soldiers were found by Marines on Friday in a shallow grave in the battle-worn town of Nasiriyah, near the Euphrates River.
U.S. Military officials said they believe the four were executed by Iraqi paramilitary forces after being seized in an ambush on Sunday.
Military officials declined to speculate as to whether the four were among those who were shown alive by the Arab television network last weekend. The military had heard reports that the soldiers were executed after they were shown on the Arab network, but there was no confirmation.
On Friday, a Marine unit found the four bodies in a freshly dug grave near a house in the northeast corner of the town of al-Jazeera. An Army official said the four bodies were clothed in U.S. military uniforms.
Today, the military were flying in a forensic team, military investigators and a member of the V Corps Staff Judge Advocate's office to the site. Officers said that the military was tentatively treating the deaths as a war crime.
The soldiers seized in the ambush have been listed as missing in action. The 507th Maintenance Co. is attached to the 3rd Infantry Division.
Officers of V Corps said the names of the dead would be released after their families were notified.
The ambush occurred in Nasiriyah, in southeastern Iraq.
According to Army officers, soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Unit were traveling on Highway 1, a main north-south artery, in darkness in a convoy of six vehicles. The unit was en route to supply an antiaircraft battery.
The convoy made a wrong turn, mistakenly leaving Highway 1. Officials said they believed that as the Americans realized their mistake, they turned around and quickly encountered two Iraqi T-55 tanks and an advancing Iraqi military unit. The soldiers came under rocket and small-arms fire.
In the fight that followed, the first of the two cars, a Humvee, the standard Army vehicle and a tool truck, were separated from the other four. An Army captain in the Humvee -- the senior officer -- drove the vehicle carrying wounded soldiers through the gunfire. According to one account, the officer drove nearly four miles before being forced to stop because his tires had been crippled by gunshots.
The officer sought to change the tires of the Humvee, when an American Marine unit on patrol saw him and the soldiers in his vehicle, officers said. The Marines called in a helicopter, which evacuated the officer and his wounded soldiers. Some were seriously wounded, one of them shot in the jaw.
The Marines resumed their patrol in search of the Fedayeen, the paramilitary force. Within minutes, they came upon two American vehicles, damaged by bullets. Two other vehicles were burning. No Americans were in sight.
Hours later, grim photos of American soldiers were shown on the Arab network al-Jazeera. Some appeared to have been executed, with bullet wounds to the head. The uniforms of others were stained with blood.
Within 24 hours, the Army was hearing reports that some of the soldiers had been executed.
How sad and ironic is this?
I hope that at this point, they are telling them that. Fighting to one's death is something I have never directly been faced with, but troops need to be made aware, of some are not, of the atrocities of the Iraqi forces.
Keep the faith we will do it,,, both houses of legislature controled by Republicans begining in 2002. first time in a thousand years or so :||
My uncle, who was in the German Army during WW2 once told me the following story. While fighting in the Soviet Union in 1943 his infantry company came upon 2 of their comrades who had been captured by Communist partisans. Both dead soldiers had been crucified and their bodies horribly mutilated. After seeing this every member of his company vowed never to be taken alive and under no circumstances would they ever surrender. In the beginning the German army in Russia as a matter of course shot any partisans they captured since at that time partisans were not entitled to the protection of the Geneva conventions. Atrocities like these only cause soldiers to fight harder.
God bless the souls of our fallen soldiers, and God please bring comfort to their grieving families. Amen.
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