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Reports and interviews collected by TIME indicated otherwise. For the past year, the road to Baghdad's airport, where Mehdi's car burned that morning, has been one of the most heavily secured roads in Baghdad. The Iraqi government has contracted a private British security firm, Global Strategies Group, to control a series of checkpoints leading up to the airport, with multiple ID checks and a car X-ray scan for explosives. At one checkpoint, passengers are asked to exit the car completely, leaving all doors open, including the trunk and hood, while Global security guards lead sniffer dogs around...
...Iraqi witness to the event who also drives the airport road each day for work said he was approaching Mehdi's Opel from a distance when the Americans fired. "I was about 400 meters behind the car, and suddenly I saw dust coming up because the Americans were firing. When I saw what was happening, I braked and started to put the car in reverse," said the man, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. "One bullet penetrated the dashboard on my car. I turned the car around and drove back in the wrong direction, telling other cars...
...they are not usually there," says U.S. military spokesman Mark Cheadle, referring to the convoy from the 4th Brigade that was parked at the roadside. According to a Global Security statement obtained by TIME, the American platoon had been on its way to a military base near the airport when they were forced to pull over because a humvee was having engine trouble. It said one of the soldiers on the ground said he thought he heard gunfire and alerted the others through their headsets. The gunner of the first humvee quickly rotated in his turret to face the road...
...Ziad would never have carried a gun - let alone a sponge in his pocket," says an airport employee who was good friends with Mehdi and who expressed intense anger following his death. Mehdi's son Mohammed also says his father never owned any weapons. "We don't have a single bullet in our house...
...July 19, the three families of the deceased say they were invited to the airport police station to meet with American officers, identified by Mohammed as Brigadier General Robin Swan, the deputy commanding general for multinational forces in Baghdad, and a "Lieut. Colonel Lather." According to Mohammed, the military offered each family $10,000, but the families refused the money, demanding a formal letter of apology first. "The lieut. colonel kept saying he was sorry for the incident. They said it was a very big tragedy. But they never said they were wrong or they had made a mistake," says...