U.S. admits abduction, executions
KARBALA, Iraq – Four American soldiers, who the U.S. military originally reported were killed when unknown gunmen stormed an Iraqi provincial office in Karbala last Saturday, were in fact taken hostage and later executed by their kidnappers, military officials said Friday.
The abducted soldiers were discovered, with shots to the head, when five Chevrolet Suburbans used in the attack were found abandoned, their doors open, near the city of Hilla hours after the attack. Hilla is about 24 miles from Karbala.
Military officials offered no explanation for why the men originally were reported as having died “repelling the attack.” The Pentagon named the men in a news release on Tuesday and said they’d died “from wounds sustained when their patrol was ambushed while conducting dismounted operations.”
Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon news release was “based on information provided by the Army.” Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, didn’t respond to e-mails and phone calls seeking an explanation.
The inaccurate accounts of how the four men died recalled the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004. The Pentagon initially said Tillman had been killed by Taliban insurgents. Only later did military officials say that he’d been shot by fellow American soldiers.
It was unknown Friday what families of the abducted servicemen had been told about their deaths. Efforts to contact the families were unsuccessful.
U.S. officials have been largely silent about the circumstances of last Saturday’s raid in which unknown gunmen slipped unchallenged past checkpoints manned by Iraqi soldiers and stormed a government compound where American officials were meeting with local Iraqi counterparts.
Friday’s statement quoting Bleichwehl on details of the abductions and executions was released only after the Associated Press distributed a story quoting Iraqi police officials and two unnamed U.S. officials.
Iraqi police officials in recent days have portrayed the Saturday raid as a major breach of security. A police official in Hilla told McClatchy Newspapers on Monday that one of the vehicles used in the attack carried a license plate stolen from a car of Iraq’s minister of trade.
New details indicated that the attackers spoke English and posed as Americans to get past Iraqi security in one of the most sophisticated operations against American soldiers since the Iraq war began in 2003. They apparently were well enough informed about the compound, known as the Provincial Joint Coordination Center, that they went directly to where the Americans were in the compound, attacking with a barrage of grenades and rifle fire. Three American Humvees were destroyed.
“The precision of the attack, the equipment used and the possible use of explosives to destroy the military vehicles in the compound suggests that the attack was well rehearsed prior to execution,” Bleichwehl was quoted as saying. “The attackers went straight to where Americans were located in the provincial government facility, by-passing the Iraqi police in the compound.”
At the main building, soldiers heard the explosions coming from in the compound and tried to defend themselves. One grenade was tossed into the command center where the provincial police chief’s office is housed, killing one soldier and wounding three, the statement said.
After about 15 minutes, the gunmen snatched four soldiers and fled toward Babel province. As they passed a checkpoint into the province, police in the area grew suspicious and gave chase.
They found the five abandoned vehicles near the town of al Mahawil. Inside one vehicle two soldiers were handcuffed together and shot in the head. A third soldier, also shot in the head, was found sprawled on the ground. A fourth soldier was found wounded and died as Iraqi police rushed him to the hospital, the statement said.