Iraqi Tells of Massacre at Farmhouse – Los Angeles Times
“Never in my mind could I have imagined such a gruesome sight,” Abu Firas Janabi said of the day in March when his cousin, Fakhriya Taha Muhsen; her husband, Kasim Hamza Rasheed; and their two daughters were slain and their farmhouse set ablaze. “Kasim’s corpse was in the corner of the room, and his head was smashed into pieces,” he said. The 5-year-old daughter, Hadel, was beside her father, and Janabi said he could see that Fakhriya’s arms had been broken. In another room, he found 15-year-old Abeer, naked and burned, with her head smashed in “by a concrete block or a piece of iron.” “There were burns from the bottom of her stomach to the end of her body, except for her feet,” he said. “I did not believe what I was seeing. I tried to fool myself into believing I was in a dream. But the problem was that we were not dreaming. We put a piece of cloth over her body. Then I left the house together with my wife.”
The US military gave the lead killer and honorable discharge, immediately after these murders, and pulled him out of Iraq, and now pretends that they had no idea he committed it.
Do not miss Ellen Knickmeyer’s report from Monday on the same incident. The Pentagon is still claiming (as is most of the US news media) that the rape victim was 25 years old, not 15.
Death certificates viewed Sunday at the Mahmudiyah hospital identified the victims as Fakhriyah Taha Muhsin, 34, killed by gunshots to her head; Qasim Hamza Raheem, 45, whose head was “smashed” by bullets; Hadeel Qasim Hamza, 7, Abeer’s sister, shot; and Abeer, shot in the head. Abeer’s body also showed burns, the death certificate noted.
Janabi said U.S. soldiers controlled the scene of the killings for several hours on March 11, telling neighbors that insurgents were responsible. The bodies of the victims were taken to Mahmudiyah hospital by March 12, according to Janabi and an official at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On March 13, a man identifying himself as a relative claimed the bodies for burial, the hospital official said. An hour after the man left with the bodies, U.S. soldiers came to the hospital and asked about the bodies, the hospital official said.
The next day, the hospital official said, soldiers scoured the area, trying to find the funeral for the family.
“But they did not find it, simply because the relatives did not do it, because the death includes the rape of one of the family members, which is something shameful in our tradition,” the hospital official said.
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