Word: mehdi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...current legal status of actions carried out by U.S. troops in the country. Perhaps even more critical at this stage of the negotiations is how the U.S. military has dealt with information on the deaths. Not till the evening of July 27, more than a month after Mehdi and his passengers were killed (and hours after this story first appeared on TIME.com), did the U.S. military release the conclusions of its own investigation, essentially agreeing with the Iraqi police reports and the conclusions of a private security firm contracted to manage the checkpoints on the road...
...after Mehdi, Youssef and Ahmed burned to death in Mehdi's car, the U.S. military reiterated its initial report. U.S. military spokesman Lieut. Colonel Steven Stover responded to questions posed by TIME via e-mail, saying, "We stand by the information we sent in the press release ... There are photos of the two U.S. Military vehicles with bullet holes...
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...
...impossible for anyone to get through here with a weapon. Even Ali al-Dabbagh [Iraq's government spokesman] can't get a weapon in," a security guard at the second Global checkpoint told TIME a week after the incident. He said Mehdi must have been "driving fast." Says another Global official who was on the road the day of the shooting: "I know they were unarmed ... It was the U.S. military shooting three civilians. This is public knowledge...
...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...