You may have heard about the Iraqi civilian who was dragged from his home, killed by American troops, and then had his body staged to look like an insurgent.
Well, in what might be the first incident of self-policing done by the military, 8 US soldiers are now facing charges as a result of this incident.
Seven U.S. Marines and a Navy medical corpsman will face murder charges in connection with the April killing of an Iraqi civilian near the town of Hamdaniya, Pentagon sources said Wednesday.
Continued below
In the story from
CNN.com, the soldiers are also facing a number of other charges:
In addition to murder, the charges against all eight will include kidnapping, conspiracy, larceny and making false official statements, a Pentagon official familiar with the results of the investigation told CNN.
He was a disabled veteran of the Iraq-Iran war, and this is the treatment he got by our troops:
The Americans carried Awad from his home to the main road through town, said his brother, Sadoon. Police turned over Awad's body to relatives the next day, along with an assault rifle and shovel his family says were planted to make him look like an insurgent.
Oh, and if you were wondering how much an Iraqi life is worth to the United States...it's about as much as a jalopy or a decent used car, depending on how embarrassing the incident is percieved to be.
U.S. troops offered $2,000 in compensation for his brother's death, then $10,000, said Sadoon Awad. He said he considered the offers an attempt to buy his family's silence.
I don't think this has been diaried already. It was just posted half an hour ago on CNN.com and is still "Breaking News" on their banner. Given the titles of the recommended diaries, I refrained from using the "BREAKING" headline here.