Marines find bodies of four American soldiers

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.

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.

Pentagon official said there is an unconfirmed report out of Iraq that Saddam's son Qusai, heir apparent to the presidency, is supervising how the captured soldiers are handled

March 29, 2003

U.S. POWs held by Saddam's inner circle
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Seven American prisoners of war have been taken from southern Iraq to Baghdad and are under the direct control of people close to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Bush administration officials said yesterday.

One Pentagon official said the expectation is that Saddam's regime will use the captives to score propaganda points by putting them on Iraqi television or forcing them to do an interview with the Arab-language Al Jazeera television network, based in Qatar. Both actions would be a violation of the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of POWs.

A U.S. official outside the Pentagon said, "I think that that is a fair statement" when told that Pentagon officials say the seven POWs are alive and in Baghdad. He spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The two principal allied combatants in the war against Iraq, the United States and Britain, have publicly accused Saddam's forces of assassinating their POWs.

"What has surprised me most, quite honestly, is that in nearly six days of ground fighting that the forces that are loyal to Saddam Hussein have already committed so many war crimes," said Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace this week on CNN. "They have executed prisoners of war."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in Washington this week that Fedayeen paramilitary troops around Basra had executed two captured British soldiers.

Another Pentagon official said there is an unconfirmed report out of Iraq that Saddam's son Qusai, heir apparent to the presidency, is supervising how the captured soldiers are handled. Qusai is in charge of much of the Ba'ath Party's security apparatus, including the Republican Guard, which defends Baghdad, and the Special Republican Guard, which protects the city and Saddam's inner circle of supporters.

Both Pentagon officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say there is no confirmed intelligence that Qusai is in charge of overseeing the American POWs. The U.S. official, however, said he doubted that Saddam's son had those duties.

Whether Saddam and his two sons, Qusai and the older Uday, are alive or dead is the subject of much speculation in U.S. intelligence agencies.

On the war's first night, March 19, the allies bombed a safe house on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, where Saddam, his sons and top aides were believed to be staying. The complex, known as Dora Farms, was hit by at least two 2,000-pound bunker-penetrating bombs and a number of sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles.

U.S. officials believe that people were killed but have no confirmed intelligence on their identities. The CIA and U.S. Central Command, which is running the war, believe that Saddam probably survived and has regained some control over his security and military forces.

After the bombing, a man resembling Saddam was seen being carried out of the rubble on a stretcher. But a Pentagon official said rescue workers had placed an oxygen mask over the victim, making eyewitness identification difficult.

There are seven known American POWs in Iraqi hands who were captured in two separate engagements.

Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary troops took five U.S. soldiers captive Sunday after ambushing their lost supply convoy in Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq. Military officials believe that Fedayeen troops executed two or three soldiers at the scene with gunshots to the forehead. Iraqi forces videotaped their bodies and the five surviving captives in a hospital that was turned into a military command center before they were taken to Baghdad.
On Tuesday, Iraqi forces shot down an Apache helicopter attacking a Republican Guard division near Najaf, south of Baghdad. Two aviators of the 11th Helicopter Attack Regiment were taken as POWs and shown on Iraqi television.

Iraq has a history of mistreating POWs. It took 23 American captives during the Desert Storm campaign in 1991 and mistreated all of them. Former prisoners recounted how they were beaten repeatedly, then were forced to read statements broadcast on Arab television.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued a blunt warning yesterday to Saddam's regime not to mistreat POWs.

"To the officials of the Iraqi regime: The defeat, your defeat, is inevitable, and you will be held accountable for your conduct in this war," he said. "The coalition POWs that you are holding must be treated according to the Geneva Conventions. And any Iraqi officials involved in their mistreatment, humiliation or execution will pay a severe price."

Sister of Captured GI Dies of Disorder

Saturday March 29, 2003 1:00 AM

PENNSAUKEN, N.J. (AP) - The sister of an Army sergeant captured by Iraqi forces died Friday of a rare neurological disorder.

The parents of captured U.S. Army Sgt. James Riley stood silently outside their suburban Philadelphia home as a military spokesman confirmed the death of Mary Riley, 29. She died at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, where she had been in a coma since Jan. 23.

The family, in a written statement, said they hope their son keeps his ``faith in God, his nation and himself'' if he finds out about his sister's death before they are able to contact him.

James Riley, 31, of Pennsauken, was one of five U.S. soldiers captured when Iraqi forces attacked an army supply convoy around An Nasiriyah. He was seen Sunday on Iraqi television broadcasts.

Riley was with the 507th Maintenance Co., part of the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, based at Fort Bliss, Texas. He enlisted in the Army after graduating Pennsauken High School in 1990.

Riley's parents, Athol and Jane, scheduled a private funeral for Mary, who would have turned 30 on April 23.

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