US officer describes alleged murder of Iraqi prisoners

[Judi Lynn]

Sergeant Tells of Plot to Kill Iraqi Detainees

By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: July 28, 2006
For more than a month after the killings, Sgt. Lemuel Lemus stuck to his story.

“Proper escalation of force was used,” he told an investigator, describing how members of his unit shot and killed three Iraqi prisoners who had lashed out at their captors and tried to escape after a raid northwest of Baghdad on May 9.

Then, on June 15, Sergeant Lemus offered a new and much darker account.

In a lengthy sworn statement, he said he had witnessed a deliberate plot by his fellow soldiers to kill the three handcuffed Iraqis and a cover-up in which one soldier cut another to bolster their story. The squad leader threatened to kill anyone who talked. Later, one guilt-stricken soldier complained of nightmares and “couldn’t stop talking” about what happened, Sergeant Lemus said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28abuse.html

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US officer describes alleged murder of Iraqi prisoners

WASHINGTON - A US sergeant has described the allegedly deliberate murder of three Iraqi prisoners and its cover-up by his squad, and how his squad leader threatened to kill anyone who talked, The New York Times said Friday.

A sworn statement on June 15 by Sgt. Lemuel Lemus contradicted his earlier account of a May 9 raid on a suspected insurgent compound near Samarra that ended with the death of three Iraqi prisoners during an attempted escape.

The New York Times obtained a copy of Lemus' statement that will be included at an Article 32 hearing -- the military's equivalent of a grand jury hearing -- next Tuesday in Iraq for four US soldiers charged with premeditated murder in the case.

Lemus said that, under orders from their squad leader, three of his comrades shot dead three Iraqi prisoners they had captured and handcuffed during the raid, making up a story that they had broken free and punched and stabbed two guards before running off.
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http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=45793

[Heidi]

1. Locking.

Duplicate of: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2418744