Would-be refugee tells of Iraq horrors

A “trigger-happy” U.S. army squad leader shot the foot off an unarmed Iraqi man and soldiers kicked a severed head around like a soccer ball, a U.S. war deserter told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Thursday.

Joshua Key, the first U.S. deserter with combat experience in Iraq to apply for refugee status in Canada, told the board he witnessed numerous atrocities committed by U.S. forces while serving eight months as a combat engineer.

Mr. Key, 27, said he was never trained on the Geneva Convention and was told in Iraq by superior officers that the international law guiding humanitarian standards was just a “guideline.”

“It's shoot first, ask questions later,” Mr. Key said of his squad's guiding principles. “Everything's justified.”

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The best outcome for this would be to have Mr Keys return to the US and give him a chance to explain himself in front of a American court .