thedrifter
05-31-06, 05:35 AM
Posted on Wed, May. 31, 2006
Arab world's reaction to alleged killing is muted
American troops often commit such acts, many believe. Two U.S. probes are under way.
By Hamza Hendawi
Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Allegations that U.S. Marines killed 24 civilians in Haditha, a volatile town in western Iraq, have caused barely a stir in Iraq and much of the Arab world - where American troops are reviled as brutal invaders who regularly commit such acts.
Arab media have largely ignored the allegations, though a few publications have made highly critical comments and said events in the small Euphrates River town northwest of Baghdad were neither the biggest alleged atrocity by American forces nor would they be the last.
The pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat focused on the role of the Western media in exposing the allegations.
"As soon as I read the news, the immediate question that came to mind was: 'Why wasn't the tape broadcast by an Arab channel or published in an Arab newspaper?' " asked Diana Mukkaled in the newspaper's Sunday edition.
Mukkaled referred to a videotape shot by an Iraqi journalism student and later obtained by Time magazine that showed the bodies of women and children, some in their nightclothes.
Reports of what happened in Haditha did not surface until March, when the incident began to be seriously investigated. An Associated Press report in March included accounts from people in the town who said they had witnessed killings.
But for now, renewed U.S. interest in the allegations has drawn only a muted response from the media in Iraq. That also appeared to be largely the case elsewhere in the Arab world.
Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi commentator and TV talk-show host, said other regional issues, like the Fatah-Hamas rivalry in the Palestinian territories, could have overshadowed the Haditha killings.
"But this issue cannot be hidden for long," Shirian said.
"This crime shows that the American administration did not only fail politically, militarily and financially [in Iraq], but has specifically failed morally," said Lebanese rights activist Maan Bashour.
The killings have prompted two U.S. investigations, one into the deadly encounter and a second into whether it was covered up. The Marine Corps had initially attributed 15 civilian deaths to a car bombing and a subsequent firefight that left eight insurgents dead.
What happened in Haditha remains unclear. Rep. John P. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and decorated war veteran who has been briefed by military officials, said a Marine was killed when a bomb hit a military convoy. Angered by the loss of a comrade, he said, the Marines shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi, then went into two homes and shot the occupants, including women and children.
The Prime Minister's Response
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broke his public silence yesterday on the alleged killing of about 24 civilians by U.S. Marines, saying that such deaths were never justified, even in the fight against terrorists.
Maliki, in a television interview with the BBC, expressed remorse over
the reported killings in November in the western Iraqi city of Haditha.
"We emphasizethat our forces, that multinational forces will respect human rights, the rights of the Iraqi citizen," Maliki said. "It is
not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists; we have
to be more specific and more careful."
Pentagon investigationsinto the shootings are focused
on about a dozen enlisted Marines and do not target their commanding officers, the lawyer for one of the officers said yesterday.
The highest-rankingMarine targeted by the investigations is a staff sergeant who led the convoy, said attorney Paul Hackett, a Marine reservist and Iraqi war veteran who last year narrowly lost a special election for a U.S. House seat in Ohio.
Hackett represents Capt. James Kimber, one of
three battalion officers relieved of command last month.
"My purpose is to separate his name from the alleged war crimes that took
place," Hackett told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Ellie
Arab world's reaction to alleged killing is muted
American troops often commit such acts, many believe. Two U.S. probes are under way.
By Hamza Hendawi
Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Allegations that U.S. Marines killed 24 civilians in Haditha, a volatile town in western Iraq, have caused barely a stir in Iraq and much of the Arab world - where American troops are reviled as brutal invaders who regularly commit such acts.
Arab media have largely ignored the allegations, though a few publications have made highly critical comments and said events in the small Euphrates River town northwest of Baghdad were neither the biggest alleged atrocity by American forces nor would they be the last.
The pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat focused on the role of the Western media in exposing the allegations.
"As soon as I read the news, the immediate question that came to mind was: 'Why wasn't the tape broadcast by an Arab channel or published in an Arab newspaper?' " asked Diana Mukkaled in the newspaper's Sunday edition.
Mukkaled referred to a videotape shot by an Iraqi journalism student and later obtained by Time magazine that showed the bodies of women and children, some in their nightclothes.
Reports of what happened in Haditha did not surface until March, when the incident began to be seriously investigated. An Associated Press report in March included accounts from people in the town who said they had witnessed killings.
But for now, renewed U.S. interest in the allegations has drawn only a muted response from the media in Iraq. That also appeared to be largely the case elsewhere in the Arab world.
Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi commentator and TV talk-show host, said other regional issues, like the Fatah-Hamas rivalry in the Palestinian territories, could have overshadowed the Haditha killings.
"But this issue cannot be hidden for long," Shirian said.
"This crime shows that the American administration did not only fail politically, militarily and financially [in Iraq], but has specifically failed morally," said Lebanese rights activist Maan Bashour.
The killings have prompted two U.S. investigations, one into the deadly encounter and a second into whether it was covered up. The Marine Corps had initially attributed 15 civilian deaths to a car bombing and a subsequent firefight that left eight insurgents dead.
What happened in Haditha remains unclear. Rep. John P. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and decorated war veteran who has been briefed by military officials, said a Marine was killed when a bomb hit a military convoy. Angered by the loss of a comrade, he said, the Marines shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi, then went into two homes and shot the occupants, including women and children.
The Prime Minister's Response
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broke his public silence yesterday on the alleged killing of about 24 civilians by U.S. Marines, saying that such deaths were never justified, even in the fight against terrorists.
Maliki, in a television interview with the BBC, expressed remorse over
the reported killings in November in the western Iraqi city of Haditha.
"We emphasizethat our forces, that multinational forces will respect human rights, the rights of the Iraqi citizen," Maliki said. "It is
not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists; we have
to be more specific and more careful."
Pentagon investigationsinto the shootings are focused
on about a dozen enlisted Marines and do not target their commanding officers, the lawyer for one of the officers said yesterday.
The highest-rankingMarine targeted by the investigations is a staff sergeant who led the convoy, said attorney Paul Hackett, a Marine reservist and Iraqi war veteran who last year narrowly lost a special election for a U.S. House seat in Ohio.
Hackett represents Capt. James Kimber, one of
three battalion officers relieved of command last month.
"My purpose is to separate his name from the alleged war crimes that took
place," Hackett told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Ellie