After the incidents at Haditha, Ishaqi, Hamandiya, and Samarra, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at the American military, denouncing what he characterized as habitual attacks by troops against Iraqi civilians. That was before this.
The U.S. Army is investigating allegations that American soldiers raped and killed a woman and killed three of her family members in a town south of Baghdad, then reported the incident as an insurgent attack, a military official said Friday.
The alleged crimes occurred in March in the insurgent hotbed of Mahmudiyah. The four soldiers involved, from the 502nd Infantry Regiment, attempted to burn the family’s home to the ground and blamed insurgents for the carnage, according to a military official familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was providing details not released publicly.
No charges have yet been filed in the case, which the official said was “in the very early stages.”
According to the WaPo report, the unit in Mahmudiyah had attributed the deaths of the four civilians to “insurgent activity, which is common in the area,” until two soldiers from the 502nd came forward June 23 to say U.S. troops were responsible.
The NYT added that the alleged rape and killings came to light after a soldier felt compelled to talk about it in a “counseling-type session,” after the discovery of the bodies of his kidnapped colleagues, and one soldier has admitted his role and has been arrested.
As Garance Franke-Ruta noted, “Every incident like this is more powerful than the millions of dollars spent by the State Department on public diplomacy.” Given that this incident involves an alleged sex crime against a Muslim woman, I think that’s an understatement.