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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Are Coalition Troops WORSE THAN SADDAM
(Paul Byrne, Daily Mirror, May 1, 2004)
A HOODED Iraqi captive is beaten by British soldiers before being thrown from a moving truck and left to die. . . . The prisoner, aged 18-20, begged for mercy as he was battered with rifle butts and batons in the head and groin, was kicked, stamped and urinated on, and had a gun barrel forced into his mouth. . . . After an EIGHT-HOUR ordeal, he was left barely conscious and close to death. Bleeding and vomiting and with a broken jaw and missing teeth, he was driven from a Basra camp and hurled off the truck. No one knows if he lived or died. . . . The outrage, which emerged the day after US troops were pictured torturing Iraqi prisoners of war, makes a mockery of the Army's attempts to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. . . . Weeks after the pictures were taken, a captive was allegedly beaten to death in custody by men from the same Queen's Lancashire Regiment. It is also alleged a video was found of prisoners being thrown off a bridge. . . . Soldier A told how the young victim was hauled in suspected of stealing from the docks. . . . He said: "You pick on a man and go for him. Straightaway he gets a beating, a couple of punches and kicks to put him down. Then he was dragged to the back of the vehicle." . . . Immediately a sandbag was placed over the man's head and his hands tied behind his back. . . . Soldier A said: As we took him back he was getting a beating. He was hit with batons on the knees, fingers, toes, elbows, and head. . . . You normally try to leave off the face until you're in camp. If you pull up with black eyes and bleeding faces you could be in shit. . . . "So it's body shots - scaring him, saying 'We're going to kill you'. A lot of them cry and piss themselves. . . . Because it was so hot we put him in the back of a four- tonner truck which has a canopy over it. That's where the photos were taken. Lads were taking turns giving him a right going over, smashing him in the face with weapons and stamping on him. We had him for about eight hours. . . . You could see blood coming out early from the first 'digs'. He was pissedd on and there was spew. . . . "We took his mask off to give him some water and let him have a rest for 10 minutes. He could only speak a few words, pleading 'No, mister' . No, mister'. . . . "He was missing teeth. All his mouth was bleeding and his nose was all over the place. He couldn't talk, his jaw was out. He's had a good few hours of a kicking. He was on his way to being killed. There's only so much you can take. . . . After the officer allegedly told the attackers to get rid of the suspect he was driven off. . . . Soldier A said: "The lads said they took him back to the dock and threw him off the back of a moving vehicle. They'd have freed his hands, but he'd still be hooded. He'd done nothing, really. I felt sorry for him. I'm not emotional about it, but I knew it was wrong." . . . "We had one who fought back. I thought 'Don't do that', it's the worst thing you can do. He got such a kicking. You could hear your mate's boots hitting this lad's spine. . . . "One of the lads broke his wrist on a prisoner's head. Another nearly broke his foot, kicking him. We're not helping ourselves out here. We're never going to get the Iraqis on our side. We're fighting a losing war." . . . He said: "We got a warning, saying the Military Police had found a video of people throwing prisoners off a bridge. It wasn't 'Don't do it' or 'Stop it'. It was 'Get rid of it.' " . . . Both men fear the situation is worsening, with UK troops now seen as the enemy, rather than liberators. . . . One said: "I can't believe it has taken the Iraqis so long to fight back. If it had been me or my family, I'd have retaliated straightaway. . . . "They've just got fuckedd around so much. You can't go in now, and say 'Right, let's forget about what has happened and start again'. . . . "We're struggling now. There are too many people against us."

[COMMENT: The Daily Mirror has now apparently revealed that these photographs were fakes. For the rest of this story, please see Daily Mirror Editor Resigns Over Fake Photos LoZo 5-14-04]

posted by Lorenzo 12:25 PM