Mercy killing in Iraq

Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD — As a U.S. Army patrol rolled into Sadr City one night in August, soldiers received a tip that militants in dump trucks were planting roadside bombs.

American troops had been clashing regularly with Al Mahdi militiamen in the restive Baghdad slum. So when Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban of Carson saw an object fall from a garbage truck in the distance, his company took positions around the vehicle and unleashed a barrage of fire from rifles and a 25-millimeter cannon atop a Bradley fighting vehicle. The truck exploded in flames.

As soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, approached the burning vehicle, they did not find insurgents. The victims were mainly teenagers, hired to work the late shift picking up trash for about $5 a night, witnesses said.

Medics scrambled to treat the half-dozen people strewn around the scene. A dispute broke out among a handful of soldiers standing over one severely wounded young man who was moaning in pain. An uninjured Iraqi claiming to be a relative pleaded in broken English for soldiers to help the victim.

But to the horror of bystanders, Alban, 29, a boyish-faced sergeant who joined the Army in 1997, retrieved an M-231 assault rifle and fired at the wounded man.

Seconds later, another soldier, Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., grabbed an M-16 rifle and also shot the victim.

The killing might have been forgotten but for a U.S. soldier who days later slipped an anonymous note under the door of the unit's commander, Capt. Robert Humphries, alleging that "soldiers had committed serious crimes that needed to be looked at."

U.S. officials have since characterized the shooting as a "mercy killing," citing statements by Alban and Horne that they shot the wounded Iraqi "to put him out of his misery."

Military attorneys, however, are calling it premeditated murder and have charged the two sergeants, saying the victim's suffering was no excuse for the soldiers' actions.

"I have no doubt that's why they did it," said Capt. John Maloney, one of the military attorneys prosecuting the case.

"But it still constitutes murder."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-mercykilling5nov05,0,5030596.story?coll=la-home-headlines

OMG, you put a horse out of it's misery, not HUMAN BEINGS!!

And there are probably plenty of people who voted for Bush who don't see anything wrong with killing someone "to put him out of his misery"

Abortion is wrong but murdering an unarmed and injured Iraqi is absolutely alright??? WTF???

The rest of the world has every right to hate us. This Administration and Bush followers are as dangerous as Hitler and his Gestapo. Demented and violent pieces of shit.

And there are probably plenty of people who voted for Bush who don't see anything wrong with killing someone "to put him out of his misery"

That is, unless they've been braindead for 12 years laying in hospital bed in Florida!!!

Last time I checked, the conservatives say they are AGAINST euthenasia which is EXACTLY what is alleged to have happened!!!!


BTW, this even is an example of why the US will NEVER put down the insurgency. Every atrocity like this will breed 5 insurgents. And the Americans can't tell the difference between their friends and allies! So they'll KEEP getting bogus intelligence like this that will incite more outrage amongst Iraqis!!!

The "war" in Iraq is unwinnable. The country is doomed to civil war. All we're doing is DELAYING it!!!!

The Florida woman is white and American. Of course, these right-wing fundies will fight to keep her "alive"

Lots of those Bush supporters (especially those on freerepublic) are in favor of putting all Muslims out of their "misery"


I just read that Iraq has declared Martial Law. Of course, Iraq is heading into a civil war. Not only that, it is heading into civil war because America invaded Iraq.

Wow, it looks like the swift boat veterans have new work to do!!! This soldier is saying that all American serviceman in Iraq have committed war crimes!!!!

...makes me sick thinking of this mutilated kid moaning after being blown up because one of them dropped something. Amazing how we overlook the fact that all killed & mutilated there were innocent civilians trying to make a living in a war zone.

Thanks Bush, you lying mass-murdering killer chimp that you are. Motherfucker.