Wounded Iraqi 'didn't move'
2004-11-22 13:21
Baghdad, Iraq - The NBC journalist who filmed the fatal shooting of an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi by a US marine inside a Fallujah mosque has written on his website that the wounded man made no sudden movements before he was shot.
Before the opening of the November 8 assault on the rebel-held city, marine commanders told infantrymen that the rules of engagement allowed for use of deadly force against men of military age deemed holding hostile intent, even if the enemy didn't fire on the marines first.
In a posting on his site dated Sunday, Kevin Sites, a freelancer on assignment for NBC, wrote that he didn't see the wounded Iraqi make any movement before the marine shot him - but that only the marine can explain his mental state before the shooting.
"Through my viewfinder I can see him (marine) raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging," Sites wrote.
"However, the marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another marine searches for weapons. Instead, he pulls the trigger.
"There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down," Sites wrote.
"'Well he's dead now,'" says another marine in the background.
"I was not watching from a hundred feet away. I was in the same room," Sites writes. "Aside from breathing, I did not observe any movement at all."
"I can't know what was in the mind of that marine," the posting reads. "He is the only one who does."
The US military is investigating the November 13 incident, footage of which has been broadcast worldwide, inflaming anti-American passions in the Arab world and among Iraq's Sunni minority.
Military investigators also are looking into whether more than one wounded insurgent was shot in the mosque. Two other men visible on the NBC video appear to be suffering from what the network described in a broadcast as fresh and fatal gunshot wounds.
In the video, as the cameraman moved into the mosque, a marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead.
The marine then raises his rifle toward an Iraqi lying on the floor of the mosque and shoots the man.
Two other men are seen slumped by a wall. Sites' account said the men, who were hurt in the previous day's attack, had been shot again by the marines.
Sites writes in his Web diary that the marine, angry moments before firing, quickly became apologetic when he realised the incident had been caught on camera.
"The marine who fired the shot became aware that I was in the room. He came up to me and said, 'I didn't know sir - I didn't know.' The anger that seemed present just moments before turned to fear and dread."
On the Net
www.kevinsites.net
- AP