WASHINGTON (AFP) — US soldiers shot and killed four Iraqi prisoners execution-style last year to avenge the deaths of two army comrades, according testimony cited Wednesday by the New York Times.
The sworn statements came from two of three soldiers involved in the alleged 2007 incident, according to The Times, which said it obtained the testimony from "a person close to one of the soldiers in the unit who insisted on anonymity and who has an interest in the outcome of the legal proceedings."
According to the statements, the soldiers shot the four handcuffed and blindfolded prisoners, then removed their wrist ties and blindfolds and "pushed the bodies into the canal and left," The Times reported.
The descriptions of the killings, which occurred during a combat patrol west of Baghdad, were made in January to army investigators in Schweinfurt, Germany.
None of the three soldiers, from the 172nd infantry brigade, has been charged with a crime, but lawyers representing other soldiers who heard or witnessed the killings said they anticipated murder charges would be filed.
Four other soldiers from the same unit have been charged with murder conspiracy for agreeing to go along with the plan, despite army laws that prohibit harming unarmed enemy combatants in custody.
The trio was ordered by army superiors to release the four prisoners, identified as Shiite fighters linked to the Mahdi army militia, because they had insufficient evidence to detain them, The Times said.
But one sergeant ordered the soldiers to "take the detainees to a canal and kill them," the paper quoted one of the soldiers as saying, adding that the killings were "retribution" for the earlier sniper-shooting and roadside bomb deaths of two US soldiers from the unit.
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