US probes new Iraq massacre claim

The BBC have obtained new video footage that appears to show that US soldiers have deliberately killed 11 Iraqi civilians in the town of Ishaqi in March of this year.

The US authorities said they were involved in a firefight after a tip-off that an al-Qaeda supporter was visiting the house. According to the Americans, the building collapsed under heavy fire killing four people - a suspect, two women and a child.

But a report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building.

However, the footage obtained by the BBC clearly shows parts of the house still standing and that the people inside had died from bullet wounds, rather than from being crushed as US troops had claimed.

This fresh evidence of a massacre by US troops come at a time when they are already under investigation over the shooting of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha. The US army stands accused of a cover up over the events there.

The US army announced yesterday that it's troops are to have ethical training following the alleged incident in Haditha. The move has been greeted with cynicism by many Iraqis who have long claimed that the US troops are deliberately targetting civilians.

Click on the title to watch the BBC footage. It is quite clear that the bodies they are showing did not die from being crushed, as the US army are claiming.

This incident, coupled with Haditha, reveals a worrying trend where the US army appears to be systematically lying about the actions of it's troops in Iraq.

There certainly appears to be a cavalier attitude towards the lives of Iraqi civilians, as news came through yesterday of a pregnant woman being shot by US forces because the car taking her to hospital wandered into the wrong lane in an newly established checkpoint.

Related Articles:

US troops ordered to undergo ethical training after killing of Iraqi civilians

Iraqi Accuses U.S. of 'Daily' Attacks Against Civilians

Tags: Iraq, massacre, Ishaqi, Haditha, marines, cover-up,