Apparent Slaying Of Wounded Insurgent

My hope is that all the facts surrounding this incident are gathered before the media initiate the trial of public opinion. I fear it's probably too late.

Washington Post
November 16, 2004 Pg. 14

Marines Investigate Apparent Slaying Of Wounded Insurgent
By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer

Marine commanders in Iraq are investigating an incident in which a Marine apparently shot and killed a severely wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a mosque in Fallujah, a Pentagon official said last night.

Images of the incident, captured Saturday on videotape by Kevin Sites, a freelance correspondent working for NBC News who is embedded with a Marine unit, were broadcast last night on several news networks. The videotape shows a squad of Marines entering the building and seeing several Iraqis lying against a wall, either dead or gravely wounded. One Marine shouts something about one Iraqi feigning death. The Marine then shoots the man in the head.

The networks did not broadcast the entire tape, saying some of it was too graphic. "NBC has chosen not to air the most gruesome of the images," NBC anchorman Brian Williams said in introducing the videotape.
According to Sites, the wounded men were insurgents who had battled a different group of Marines the day before. In that firefight, 10 Iraqi fighters were killed and five were wounded. Those five were treated with field bandages and left in the mosque because the conditions of combat did not allow the Marines to bring them out. Other Marines were supposed to collect the wounded Iraqis and take them for treatment, but, for reasons not yet known, that did not happen, Sites said.

Then, on Saturday, the Marines received a report that the area, which they thought had been cleared, had been reoccupied by insurgents, Sites said. A different squad of Marines that had not been involved in the previous day's encounter was sent to investigate. It entered the mosque and saw the men lying on the floor. It was then that the shooting occurred, according to the videotape.

The Marine who shot the wounded Iraqi had been wounded himself the day before but returned to duty. Since the incident he has been taken out of front-line duty, Sites said.

"My understanding is that the Marines have launched an inquiry into it," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. He warned against overreacting to the videotape. "I wouldn't jump to any conclusions," he said. "We don't know all the facts here."