American agents are blamed for raid that became a massacre By Robert Fisk in
Baghdad
29 July 2003
The London Independent
The American killing of up to 11 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad during an
abortive attempt to seize Saddam Hussein on Sunday has provoked disturbing
questions as well as widespread anger in the city. Many witnesses now say
armed Americans in civilian clothes also participated in the raid - after
which at least three of the wounded were spirited away by US troops and have
not been seen since.
Fadi Barash, an unemployed car mechanic, told The Independent yesterday how
his relative Mazen Elyas was shot in the head by US troops as he drove
towards them on his way to church with his mother Tamantin and brother
Thamir. "Mazen was killed - his brain was blown out - but his mother and
Thamir were wounded," he said. "The Americans took them away in some kind of
pick-up and didn't tell anyone where they went. Mr Barash appealed
yesterday, along with other members of his family, to the International Red
Cross in an effort to force the Americans to disclose the whereabouts of the
wounded - or dead - relatives.
Thamir Elyas, it was disclosed yesterday, was himself a translator for the
American army in Baghdad. His official card states that he works for the
"Coalition Forces Land Component Command Linguist Pool Management team DNVT
550 2321." Doubly ironic - since he was shot by US forces - is that his card
allows him "authorised entry through military checkpoints" between 0700 and
1800 hours each day.
The bodies of the dead were treated shamefully. Mazen Elyas's remains were
brought to the Yarmouk hospital but his identity was not registered in the
mortuary file. Since his two closest relatives were also shot and taken away
by the Americans, there was presumably no one to identity him.
Nor is it known if Tamantine and Thamir - if alive - are aware their son and
brother are dead. In the mortuary register at the Yarmouk, I found three
victims of the American shooting. One is named as Mushrak al-Ibrahim; his
body was brought to the hospital at 7pm on Sunday - almost two hours after
the killings - and he died of "gunshot wounds to the head - police case."
"Police case" merely means he did not die in a car crash or other kind of
accident. The other two dead men, however, remained unidentified yesterday.
As usual, no Americans visited the hospital to ask for details of those they
had killed.
Old Mohamed Abdul Rahman was lucky to be alive in the surgery room
yesterday. He was shot in the stomach and hit by metal splinters when US
troops opened fire on his car during their raid in Mansur. Writhing on his
bed in pain with a drip tube in his nose, he allowed his son Firas - who was
in the family car when it was hit - to tell their story. "We were only going
to a local office with a letter to post abroad," he said. "My uncle Ahmed
was driving, my father was sitting beside him and I was in the back of the
car. We were driving up to the main Mansur road beside the Al-Sa'ah
restaurant and were about to turn right. None of us saw any Americans. There
was no barbed wire, no signs, nothing." A burst of shooting brought the car
to a halt. "My uncle was wounded in the head and neck and a bullet hit my
father in the stomach. We all lay down to hide in the car. I was unwounded.
We must have stayed like that for two minutes. My father managed to get out
of the car and then people came to help. Despite their wounds, my father and
uncle got the car started and tried to drive to the Yarmouk for help. But
the Americans had shot out the tyres so we stopped on the main highway and
other drivers came to help us."
Other witnesses gave equally terrifying accounts. A doctor at the Yarmouk
lost his son as he ran away from the shooting. A woman with at least one
child also died. Two cars burst into flames but - contrary to first reports
from the scene - they were both empty. The Americans stormed the house of
Sheikh Rabia Mohamed Habib, a tribal leader who knew Saddam Hussein before
the war, but the building was empty.
In the crowded street, the American troops - and US plain clothes agents
they brought with them - apparently regarded every approaching car as a
threat and opened fire. Even last night, the exact number of dead remained
unknown.
Standing beside his father, Firas Abdul Rahman broke down angrily at one
point in our interview. "Why did they shoot at the innocent?" he asked.
"What did we do to the Americans? We were only going to post a letter. They
shot at us from 50 metres away. Why?"
The United States, of course, has refused to sign up to the International
Criminal Tribunal for fear its soldiers serving overseas may be forced to
appear before it.
@2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
