Iraqi Army Parades Dead Fighters To Taunt Mahdi Army - With Graphic Video
Now that’s how you do shit.
See The Video Here
Times Online:
A humvee military vehicle idles on a broad avenue as an Iraqi army soldier walks nonchalantly past without so much as a glance at the body slung across the bonnet.
The dead man’s trousers have been pulled down to his ankles, exposing white underwear below a torn T-shirt drenched in blood from wounds to his chest and side.
Behind is a second Humvee with another body sprawled over the front, arms and legs outstretched. On his white shirt, a large bloodstain indicates the wound that may have killed him. A soldier sitting on the roof dangles his legs over the windscreen and seems to prod the corpse’s stomach with his boot.
As the vehicles roll slowly forward, the tooting of car horns rises to a crescendo in apparent celebration of victory in battle and the sound of whooping and gunshots can be heard.
A police officer in a blue uniform drives alongside, smiling as the Humvees are waved forward by a pedestrian in civilian clothes and head towards two large arches that span the road. The bodies are being paraded like prize stags after a hunt.
The film, which appears to have been made with a mobile phone, was passed to The Sunday Times by a senior official close to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite cleric who leads the Mahdi Army militia.
The official said it had come from Basra and showed the bodies of two Mahdi fighters who died after the Iraqi army launched an offensive in the southern port city in March with the aim of liberating it from the grip of warring militias.
There was no way to corroborate the official’s information or to identify the dead men as Mahdi fighters, but the vehicles bear Iraqi army markings and the arches glimpsed in the film resemble a Basra landmark.
The release of the video follows the Iraqi army’s success in taking a Mahdi stronghold in Basra and coincides with intense fighting between the two sides in the Sadr City suburb of Baghdad, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in little more than a month.
Yesterday a truce was announced after Sadr’s officials agreed to let the Iraqi army enter the suburb and confiscate heavy weapons in return for security guarantees. However, Mahdi sources said the parading of corpses would increase distrust of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, and his army, which is largely trained and supported by the United States.
“The Mahdi will not surrender its weapons to such an army,” said one commander. “They say we are outlaws but this video just goes to prove that Maliki’s forces are nothing more than a militia. They will never take Sadr City unless they wipe out each and every one of us.”
A second video obtained from the same source purports to show prisoners being beaten in a police station in the Shi’ite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad.
An Iraqi lawyer who has advised Maliki’s government said the two videos showed soldiers and police in serious breach of the law. “Desecratinga corpse is prohibited in law, even if he had been the worst criminal on earth,” said Maen Zaki, a former member of a government committee that handled legal issues arising from operations to restore order in Baghdad.
Major-General Mohammed al-Askari, an Iraqi defence ministry spokesman, said: “All videos and films can be manipulated these days. However, we do not tolerate anyone who defiles a body or abuses a person’s human rights. We will exercise the maximum punishment.”
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I hate to say it, but no matter how much of the west we drag into that region … it’ll always be the land where Cain fled to in guilt and shame …
May 10th, 2008 at 8:25 pmThe IA is taking a page out of the JAM playbook. Pschological warfare at its best. Its the IA’s way of saying f*ck you JAM.
You think some of the Mahdis are getting scared yet? Well, this is one way of scaring the piss out of them.
This is the message JAM and AQI need to hear over and over again; till they all surrender or die.
Like the guy said in the other clip: “Get some”.
@drillanwr
Its doubtful that Nod is an actual place since the word Nod just means “wandering”. (Nod” (נוד) is the Hebrew root of the verb “to wander” (לנדוד) Nod as Mosses used it is a figure of speech called “prolepsis” its not a place….
May 10th, 2008 at 8:50 pmHow many times did we hear of the JAM taking IA and IP vehicles including Humvees? We know of many who went traitor. Anybody think there may be a connection here? It sure seems pretty convienient. Most of the time around here we don’t take the BBC at their word and there is good reason.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:28 pmFat fuck with a rifle?
(near the bottom of THAT barrel)
May 11th, 2008 at 12:46 amNice. Fuck the JAM. Local solution to a local problem. As the Iraqi army steps up our problematic ROE can be set aside. One day Mookie, this will be you.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:29 amThe fact this hasn’t been played up in the MSM is further sign they are giving up on the war. If the MSM was still invested in us losing, they would have made a big issue about how this showed how evil the Iraqi government was and how we need to abandon them immediately.
The far right hallelujah chorus would have said this shows what disgusting barbarians the Arabs are and how we need to abandon them immediately.
However I think they know from a political standpoint, the war is over. Even Barack Obama isn’t going to withdraw troops too much faster than Bush would. The public has tired of the “Iraq is a horrible evil disaster” story line and is worried about other things, mainly the economy.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:31 amWhy can’t they parade around some dead bodies, the Mahdi army does the same goddamned thing?
May 11th, 2008 at 8:32 amWeekend at al-Bernie’s?
May 11th, 2008 at 9:35 amHow much do ya think it’d cost to acquire a Dragunov, here? Or could I just bring one home as a war trophy, in the (likely) event I see combat duty in the future? Probably not.
Anyway, he has lousy shooting form, no wonder they have to rely on IEDs. First, his trigger arm should be raised higher, at the elbow. Any skilled/experienced shooter knows why.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:07 am“I taunt you Englishman.”
May 11th, 2008 at 10:25 amImpressions often trump realities in the Arab World.
The IA know this and actions like this counter the propaganda the Mehdi are sure to spin claiming they won and were not forced to surrender. This action looks to me like a blatant “just in case you had any doubt who won?” look here.
Oh and the Mehdi claim they are now going to fight to the last man is just a bonus.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:23 pmRSR, you get get Dragunov for around 10K. They are not that hard to get.
May 11th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
EM
May 11th, 2008 at 3:04 pmWell, guess I’ll have to count on “liberating” one from a dead hajji’s hands that or wait a few decades when I have the kind of disposable income to splurge on guns.
It’s the Middle F’ing East. Who in their right mind expects civility?
May 11th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
PhilNBlanx 
Weekend @ Mookies 
May 12th, 2008 at 4:58 amMookie men understand violence only. This kind of stuff is par for the course out there. Next time they should use a flatbed and stack ‘em like cord wood on the way to the city dump.
Nice
May 12th, 2008 at 4:26 pm