Did the Israeli commando known as Staff Sargeant S kill the passengers he claims to have killed aboard the Mavi Marmara, or were they killed by terrorists?
An Israeli commando known only as Staff Sargeant S, has claimed credit for killing six of the passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara. http://www.jpost.com/...
S. does not look like a hero. Well-built, like all commandos in the Shayetet, he is also soft-spoken and stingy with words, but his commander Lt.-Col. T. fills in the blanks.
"S. did a remarkable job," T. said. "He stabilized the situation and succeeded in hitting six of the terrorists."
The Israeli government is considering awarding him a medal and there have been large demonstrations in Israel to support him.
There's only one little problem. According to the Turkish authorities who performed the autopsies on the dead, they were all killed with 9mm bullets.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.
From what I can gather, the passengers were killed using a type of ammunition that Israel doesn't normally use, so they must have been killed by terrorists.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
The soldiers reported that the activists had fired on them during the confrontation and that at least two commandos suffered gunshot wounds. After the incident, 9mm bullet casings were found - a kind not used by the naval commandos.
So, at least according to the Haaretz story, Israeli soldiers reported finding 9mm bullet casings aboard the Mavi Marmara of a type that Israel doesn't use.
According to the Guardian, the Turkish autopsies then showed that all the dead had been killed with 9mm bullets.
So far, so good. People were killed, but not by Israel.
But one of the commandos, known only as Staff Sargeant S, apparently didn't get the memo. He claimed credit for killing six of the nine dead and Israel is awarding him a medal for doing so. Is he taking credit for shots that were actually fired by terrorists, or did he fire those 9mm bullets himself?
Israel claims that Staff Sargeant S used a pistol or handgun to kill six passengers. The nine killed contained a total of 30 bullets, all but one of which were 9mm. How many pistols or handguns was he carrying? Or did he have spare magazines and stop to reload a few times? Did other commandos borrow his unauthorized "drop gun" with which to shoot the other three dead, or did terrorists take his unauthorized weapon away from him after he had killed the six and use it to kill three more of themselves?
Or is it possible that the Turkish authorities were lying and that the passengers weren't actually killed by the 9mm bullets that were removed from their bodies during the autopsies? Could the Turks have removed the actual bullets, and substituted a type of bullet that Israel doesn't use, so as to protect Israel?
To date no 9mm weapons have been produced and none have even been alleged by Israel, other than a few vague statements by individuals that some sort of weapons (no caliber specified) were thrown overboard. Did Staff Sargeant S and other Israeli commandos throw their weapons overboard to hide the fact that they had 9mm weapons? If so, why then claim credit for the 9mm fatalities?