Word: iraqi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Abbas seems friendly enough and laughs easily. As his car breezes through Iraqi army checkpoints at the entrance to Baghdad's notorious and sprawling Sadr City slum, he talks about killing Sunnis. "We caught Takfiris [members of a fundamentalist Sunni Islamist sect] who were [working] with the Americans. We didn't want to kill them, but the government was too weak to do anything at the time. So we killed them all and put them in a big grave...
...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...
...Like the Iraqi police report, the Global statement said no weapons had been found at the scene and Mehdi's car had been searched at all the Global checkpoints prior to the event. It also stated there was "no evidence" the three people in the car had displayed any hostility toward the American convoy...
...with small arms fire. Initial statements included information about a weapon in the vehicle; the investigation confirmed no weapon was recovered from the vehicle. The initial statement resulted from the numerous soldier witnesses who strongly believed they were being fired upon from the vehicle, and a misunderstanding that the Iraqi Police arriving at the scene collected a weapon. A thorough investigation determined that the driver and passengers were law abiding citizens of Iraq...
...Iraqi police report listed the American soldiers in the convoy who fired on Mehdi's car as "Lt. Thanie Painter ... driver Sgt. Phillips ... Sgt. Sagona ... Sgt. Elliot and Sgt. Shakespeare." The military has not confirmed the names of the soldiers involved or commented on their status. The U.S. military statement on the results of the investigation quote Colonel Allen Batschelet, chief of staff of the coalition forces in Baghdad, as saying, "This was an extremely unfortunate and tragic incident ... Our deepest regrets of sympathy and condolences go out to the family. We are taking several corrective measures to amend...