Shooting of “Unarmed” Terrorist
The AP is reporting that a U.S. Marine shot an unarmed terrorist in an incident caught on video.
A U.S. Marine shot and killed a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, according to dramatic pool television pictures broadcast Monday. A Marine spokesman in Washington said the shooting was under investigation.
The shooting Saturday was videotaped by pool correspondent Kevin Sites of NBC television, who said three other previously wounded prisoners in the mosque apparently also had been shot again by the Marines inside the mosque.
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On the video as the camera moved into the mosque during the Saturday incident, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead.
The video then showed a Marine raising his rifle toward a prisoner laying on the floor of the mosque but neither NBC nor CNN showed the bullet hitting the man. At that moment the video was blacked out but the report of the rifle could be heard.
The blacked out portion of the video tape, provided later to Associated Press Television News and other members of the network pool, showed the bullet striking the man in the upper body, possibly the head. His blood splatters on the wall behind him and his body goes limp.
Sites reported a Marine in the same unit had been killed just a day earlier when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.
I’d be concerned about the incident if it weren’t for the fact that there were booby-trapped dead terrorists and some were feigning death or wounds only to attack when soldiers approached. If you can’t respect the rules of war, then don’t be surprised when you are eliminated with prejudice. When it comes down to weighing the life of a terrorist who plays dirty tricks like misusing the white flag, hiding in mosques, or playing dead against the life of an American soldier, I’m going to pick the soldier every time. They aren’t there to impress the terrorists with their mercy, they’re there to capture or kill them, while minimizing risk to themselves.
