The New Yorker magazine published personnel of the murders of the American military, 24 civilians of the Iraqi city of El Hadit in 2005, including women and children.
Many of them were shot in beds with whole families, among them small children. The US military command hid for many years the publications from the public, their publication became possible after the completion of the lawsuit between the editors of the magazine and the American army.
The news material says that on November 19, 2005, an attack on the vehicle that transported the US military took place in El Hite. Within a few hours after that, the military entered residential buildings and just a few minutes shot 24 peaceful inhabitants.
The youngest victim was a three -year -old girl. The oldest was a 76-year-old man. The bodies were numbered and photographed.
New Yorker’s magazine, along with the families of the dead, filed a lawsuit against the American army, demanding that the photographs of the dead. The trial lasted about four years and ended in favor of the plaintiffs.
Blood massacres
In one of the photos published by the magazine, a 5-year-old girl named Zeynep Yunus Salim.
The girl was wounded in the head of the US naval infantryman and died in bed next to her mother, sisters and brother. After the murders, the sea infantry wrote on her back the number with a 11 red marker, so that it was easier to calculate the dead.
In one of the photographs – 40 -year -old Aid Yassin Ahmed lies on the bed surrounded by his dead children in the bedroom.
Three -year -old Aisha Unis Salim was also shot. The Marine Corceress wrote on her cheek the number 12 after she was killed. On the left is her sister Sabaa, who was ten years old, and on the right is her brother Muhammad, who was eight.
In one of the published pictures, a woman named Esma Selman Rasif lies shot together with his four -year -old son Abdullah. The explanation of the picture says that the soldier shot a woman from a distance of less than two meters.
The only survivor was the 11-year-old girl Safa, who hid in the corner next to the bed during shooting.
According to the protocols of the investigation of the massacre, one of the marine infantrymen, the younger Copral Stephen Tatum told the investigators that before starting shooting, he found out that women and children were in the room. Tatum said that he had seen a child with short hair standing on the bed. “I knew that it was a child, and still shot him,” he said.
Five more peaceful Iraqi, the American military then shot down on the way to the university, notes the publication.
In total, the soldiers of the US Marine Corps killed 24 peaceful residents in El Hite in 2005. Later, accusations from four soldiers under investigation were removed.
Despite the investigation and trial, none of the marines has suffered a punishment for the murder.
James Mattis, one of the army commanders at that time, who later became the US Minister of Defense, wrote a laudatory letter to one of the culprits of the massacre and declared, the soldiers participating in the incident were “innocent.”