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Iraq UN envoy says US Marines murdered his cousin

Posted on: Saturday, 2 July 2005, 05:25 CDT

Mark Felsenthal

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraq's U.N. ambassador hasaccused U.S. Marines of shooting to death in cold blood hisunarmed 21-year-old cousin in western Iraq and demanded animmediate investigation.

Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie said Marines killed his firstcousin's son, Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, an engineering student,during a June 25 raid of his home in Al-Shaikh Hadid, near aU.S. military base at Haditha Dam.

"All indications point to a killing of an unarmed innocentcivilian -- a cold-blooded murder," said Sumaidaie, a Sunni andally of the United States, on Friday. "The Marines were smilingat each other as they were leaving."

Sumaidaie, in a three-page statement, called for aninvestigation of the killing, saying outrage over the incidentcould jeopardize public support for the United States in Iraq.

The U.S. military, in its own statement from Camp Fallujahin Iraq, said the ambassador's charges "roughly correspond toan incident involving coalition forces on that day in thatgeneral location."

"We take these allegations seriously and will thoroughlyinvestigate this incident to determine what happened," Maj.Gen. Stephen T. Johnson said.

On Tuesday, 100 Iraqi and 1,000 U.S. troops launched afresh offensive against insurgents in the Sunni Arab westernprovince of Al-Anbar, focusing along the Euphrates Riverbetween the cities of Haditha and Hit, the U.S. military said.

BULLET TO THE NECK

Sumaidaie said insurgents who were not from the area firedmortar rounds at the U.S. base. Then "Americans come and roughup the youths in the village demanding information which theysimply do not have," he said.

His accusation was first reported in the London Times.

Mohammed al-Sumaidaie was at his father's house with hismother and other relatives on June 25 when Marines knocked atthe door at about 10 a.m. local time, the ambassador said,quoting the young man's mother.

Accompanied by an interpreter, the Marines askedal-Sumaidaie if there were weapons in the house.

Family members last saw him alive when he went to anotherroom to get a rifle that had only blanks in it, the ambassadorsaid.

The younger brother of the dead engineering student wasdragged by his hair into a corridor and beaten while the restof the family was told to wait outside, he said.

When the Marines left the house about an hour later, theinterpreter told the mother that her son had been shot andkilled, according to Sumaidaie.

He said the family found him dead with a bullet to theneck.

"The mother led off a deafening cry of anguish but theMarines were smiling at each other as they were leaving,"Sumaidaie said. "In the bedroom, Mohammed was found dead andlaying in a clotted pool of his blood.

"This killing must be investigated in a credible andconvincingly fair way to ensure that justice is done," theambassador said.

(Additional reporting by Evelyn Leopold at the UnitedNations and Charles Aldinger in Washington)

Source: REUTERS

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