[pathos worldview] Marines murder in Iraq

`No question' Iraq killing was murder
TIM HARPER, Toronto Star May 29th:

..Marines are now alleged to have gone through the neighbourhood door to door, firing shots at such close range, according to witnesses quoted by The Washington Post, that the bullets passed through the bodies of the victims and into walls or floors.

Included among the dead was a young mother shielding her 1-year-old daughter. Witnesses reported hearing her screams for mercy before she and the child were shot and Marines tossed grenades into the kitchen and bathroom of the family home.

I'm too tired and unhappy to properly respond, but it's not even necessary. The only thing I'm surprised about is the surprise of people when told that such things occur. But hey, if it's not on CNN or Fox, then it doesn't exist, right? That most can seriously believe this massacre and Abu Ghraib are accidental, isolated incidents is a remarkable feat in propaganda. I guess it's possible, seeing how people still label the occupation and decimation of Iraq a "war on terror." Perhaps they should change the "on" to an "of".

Mohammed Basit, 23, an engineering student, said that he watched as Marines entered the home of his neighbour, Salim Rasif, He peered from a window as the family, including Salim’s wife, sister-in-law and their five children, rushed into a bedroom.

“I saw them all gathering in their parents’ room, then we heard a bang which was most likely a hand grenade, then we heard shooting,” he said.
Fearing for his life, he moved away from the window.

Throughout the next day the Americans cordoned off Salim and Iman’s homes, which are located about 20 metres apart. The next night Basit and his father slipped inside Salim’s house.

“The blood was everywhere in Salim’s bedroom,” Basit said. “I saw organs and flesh on the ground and a liver on the bed. Blood splattered the ceiling. The bullet holes were in the walls and in different parts of the house.

“We found an unexploded grenade in the bathroom, which had been set on fire. There was shrapnel and a crater on the floor and the wall of the bathroom.”

Later Basit joined relatives and friends who went to al-Haditha mortuary to pick up the bodies of those whom the Marines had killed. The corpses were zipped in plastic bags. “They were all shot, even the kids. They were shot more than one time, mostly in the chest and the head,” he claimed.

Salim’s daughters — A’isha, 3, Zainab, 2, Noora, 15, and Saba’a, 11 — and his eight-year-old son, Mohammed, were among the dead.

-The Times May 29, 2006
Marines and the 'massacre': a neighbour tells of aftermath
From Ali Hamdani in al-Haditha and Ned Parker in Baghdad