The marine who shot and apparently killed a wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Falluja on Saturday has been removed from the battlefield for questioning, and American commanders in Iraq said they were bracing for a wave of outrage in the Middle East after the broadcast of the videotaped shooting. Senior military officials and human rights advocates, including those often critical of the armed services, cautioned that the graphic videotape of the shooting, taken by a pool correspondent, Kevin Sites, a freelance cameraman working for NBC News, left many questions unanswered and underscored the confusion of urban warfare. Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have taken over the inquiry, a senior Pentagon official said, and will determine whether the marine believed he was acting in self-defense when he yelled that the Iraqi was only pretending to be dead and fired at the prone body. It is unclear from watching an unedited version of the videotape whether the prisoner was moving before the shot. A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday that an autopsy might be required to help determine whether the man was dead or alive when the marine shot him. [more]
- Pictured above: a U.S. marine is seen, left, raising his rifle in the direction of two wounded Iraqi men lying on the floor of a mosque in Fallujah, Iraq Saturday Nov. 13, 2004. The marine then fires his weapon, the bullet striking the upper body of one of the Iraqi men. The bodies of two other Iraqis are seen in the foreground, lower right. The pool video was recorded Saturday as the Marines returned to an unidentified Fallujah mosque. A Marine spokesman in Washington said the shooting was under investigation. [more]
- Video (uncensored) [here]
- Police Say 31 Iraqi Cops Were Kidnapped [more]