Word: mehdi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...military does not normally patrol the section of road where the incident occurred, so Mehdi would have had no way of knowing that he would encounter an American convoy there that morning. "No, 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...
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...
...Mehdi, who, his oldest son says, "loved the Americans," was the sole breadwinner for his large family of 13, which includes the two wives of his oldest sons and three grandchildren. The Shi'ite family lived in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of al-Dora in southern Baghdad up until the peak of sectarian violence in late 2006. That was when Mehdi's youngest son Ali, then 4, was kidnapped by insurgents and held for ransom for more than a week. After paying to get him back, the family left all their furniture and belongings and fled to Karrada, a safer...
...past year and a half, Mehdi's large family has been forced to crowd into two small, sparsely furnished concrete rooms of a rented home in Karrada. "He was the only one who supported the family," says Kadhem, sobbing. "How will we pay the rent...
...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...