Head news

US soldiers say executed handcuffed Iraqis: NYT WASHINGTON — Three US soldiers killed four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots on the bank of a Baghdad canal last year, the New York Times reported yesterday. Sergeant First Class Joseph P Mayo, platoon sergeant, and Sergeant Michael P Leahy Jr, Company D’s senior medic and an acting squad leader, made sworn statements in January to Army investigators in Schweinfurt, Germany, probing the incident, the newspaper reported on its website. The men each described killing one of the Iraqi detainees, as directed by First Sergeant John E Hatley, according to the statements. Hatley shot two other detainees with a pistol in the back of the head, Mayo and Leahy told investigators, according to the NYT. US soldiers are not supposed to harm enemy combatants once they are disarmed and in custody, the NYT said. According to Leahy’s statement, cited by the NYT, Army officials directed Hatley’s convoy to release the men because there was insufficient evidence to detain them. “First Sergeant Hatley made the call to take the detainees to a canal and kill them,” as retribution for the deaths of two soldiers from the unit, Leahy said in his statement. “So the patrol went to the canal, and First Sergeant, Sgt First Class Mayo and I took the detainees out of the back of the Bradley (fighting vehicle), lined them up and shot them,” he added, according to The Times. “Then we pushed the bodies into the canal and left.” — Reuters