Executing Injured Prisoners in Fallujah

The recently broadcast NBC footage taken by an American journalist embedded with a Marines unit attacking Fallujah was unambiguous. In a badly damaged mosque, a US soldier has indeed shot dead from a close range, execution-style, an injured person who, according to the journalist himself, was severely injured, unarmed and did not pose any imminent threat. In fact, several other Iraqis were reportedly found in Fallujah with single-bullet marks in their heads indicating a similar fate. It can be accurately concluded that US soldiers are still committing war crimes in Iraq with frightening ease and nauseating impunity. Coming after the disclosure that more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed as a result of the US war on Iraq, the Abu Ghraib torture case, the wedding massacre -- in which 40 civilians, including 10 children, were killed in cold blood, as confirmed by an Associated Press Television News film -- and the onslaught of consistent, documented evidence of indiscriminate bombing of civilian neighborhoods by US forces, this new revelation should necessitate an investigation into the reported war crimes of the occupation forces by a UN-appointed committee with the intention of presenting the findings before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Despite the fact that the US does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, such an investigation may still present a crucial, indispensable forum that can exert moral and political pressure on the US and its occupation allies to better respect international law and the rules of war stipulated in it. The US armed forces cannot be trusted to conduct a proper investigation on their own. Their impressive record of lies, misinformation and cover-ups should amply explain why. [more]

• Falluja women, children Buried in mass grave. Residents of a village neighbouring Falluja have told Aljazeera that they helped bury the bodies of 73 women and children who were burnt to death by a US bombing attack. Pictured above: Many corpses remain unburied, Falluja residents say. [more]
  
• On the eve of the assault on Falluja, the US military ordered troops to shoot any male on the street between the ages of 15 and 50 if they were seen as a security threat, regardless of whether they had a weapon. [more]