British Papers Focus on Alleged U.S. 'Massacres' in Iraq

By: E&P Staff Two leading British newspapers carried new accounts and details on alleged ?massacres? of civilians in Iraq in the past four months. Except for an AP article and a Knight Ridder account published by some American papers last week the incidents have gained little exposure in the U.S. press.

The most recent incident this month was first brought to light by Time magazine, as it covered another episode last November when U.S. marines killed 15 civilians in their homes in Haditha. The military at first claimed the 15 were killed by a roadside bomb. The British daily The Independent returned to this story today, adding several details, including allegations by villagers that the Americans had allowed one injured man to bleed to death.

The March 15 incident took place in the village of Abu Sifa. According to Iraqi police, 11 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of a house, among them four women and five children aged between six months and five years. An official police report obtained by Knight Ridder said: ?The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people.?

Knight Ridder also related that military spokesman Maj. Tim Keefe had said that while the idea of U.S. troops turning into executioners is "highly unlikely," the military is taking the accusations very seriously.

?The two incidents are being investigated by U.S. authorities, but persistent eyewitness accounts of rampaging attacks by American troops are fuelling human rights activists? concerns that Pentagon commanders are failing to curb military excesses in Iraq,? the Sunday Times of London reports today.

?The Pentagon claims to have investigated at least 600 cases of alleged abuse by American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to have disciplined or punished 230 soldiers for improper behaviour. But a study by three New York-based human rights groups, due to be published next month, will claim that most soldiers found guilty of abuse received only ?administrative? discipline such as loss of rank or pay, confinement to base or periods of extra duty.?

Most other cases ended with sentences of two, three or four months. ?That?s not punishment, and that?s the problem,? said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch, which is compiling the study with two other groups.

?Our concern is that abuses in the field are not being robustly investigated and prosecuted, and that they are not setting an example with people who cross the line,? Sifton told the newspaper. ?There is a clear preference by the military for discipline with administrative and non-judicial punishments instead of courts martial. That sends the message that you can commit abuse and get away with it.?

The Times adds: ?Yet the evidence from Haditha and Abu Sifa last week suggested that the Pentagon is finding it increasingly difficult to dismiss allegations of violent excesses as propaganda by terrorist sympathisers.?

Some past allegations were proven to be exagerated but more recent accounts are proving more credible.