Iraq medic tells of rape horror
A US military court has heard graphic testimony of how American soldiers took turns holding down and raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl before murdering her and her family.
The second day of the hearing into whether four US soldiers should be court-martialled heard a special agent describe details of what took place in Mahmudiya based on an interview he conducted with Specialist James Barker, one of the accused.
Earlier, an Iraqi Army medic told how he was sick for days after finding the naked and burned body of a 14-year-old girl, allegedly raped and murdered by US soldiers.
The doctor testified on the first day of the US military tribunal hearing set up to determine whether the five soldiers will face court martial for the rape and murder on March 12 of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and the killing of her parents and sister.
The medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, had been called to the house in the hardline Sunni town of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.
He said he found the girl naked, her torso and head burned. She had a bullet wound under an eye.
"I was feeling very bad," he said. "I was sick for almost two weeks."
The case, the fifth involving serious crimes being investigated by the US military in Iraq, has outraged Iraqis.
It led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi prosecution.
In Baghdad, Iraqi and US forces fought a deadly gun battle with Shiite militiamen after launching an overnight raid on an impoverished eastern Baghdad district, Defence Ministry and militia officials said yesterday.
In another incident, six Iraqi soldiers were killed and another 15 wounded when gunmen attacked their checkpoint near the restive, religiously-mixed city of Baquba, just north of the capital.
Separately, three US soldiers were killed south-west of Baghdad on Sunday when a roadside bomb hit their patrol.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Tikrit a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral wake and killed 15 mourners.
The second day of the hearing into whether four US soldiers should be court-martialled heard a special agent describe details of what took place in Mahmudiya based on an interview he conducted with Specialist James Barker, one of the accused.
Earlier, an Iraqi Army medic told how he was sick for days after finding the naked and burned body of a 14-year-old girl, allegedly raped and murdered by US soldiers.
The doctor testified on the first day of the US military tribunal hearing set up to determine whether the five soldiers will face court martial for the rape and murder on March 12 of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and the killing of her parents and sister.
The medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, had been called to the house in the hardline Sunni town of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.
He said he found the girl naked, her torso and head burned. She had a bullet wound under an eye.
"I was feeling very bad," he said. "I was sick for almost two weeks."
The case, the fifth involving serious crimes being investigated by the US military in Iraq, has outraged Iraqis.
It led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi prosecution.
In Baghdad, Iraqi and US forces fought a deadly gun battle with Shiite militiamen after launching an overnight raid on an impoverished eastern Baghdad district, Defence Ministry and militia officials said yesterday.
In another incident, six Iraqi soldiers were killed and another 15 wounded when gunmen attacked their checkpoint near the restive, religiously-mixed city of Baquba, just north of the capital.
Separately, three US soldiers were killed south-west of Baghdad on Sunday when a roadside bomb hit their patrol.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Tikrit a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral wake and killed 15 mourners.
posted by ABEER QASSIM HAMZA at 11.9.06
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