Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre
The Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre[1][2] refers to the American shooting and bombing of a wedding party in Mukaradeeb, a small village in Iraq near the border with Syria, on 19 May 2004. 42 civilians were killed.
Incident
American officials stated that the location was a "suspected foreign fighter safe house."[3]
The wedding united members of the Rakat and Sabah families: Ashad Rakat was the groom and Rutba, his bride. Witnesses report that the American bombing started at 3 am. Local accounts state that 42 men, women and children were killed during the incident. Among the known dead were Iraqi musicians Hussein al-Ali and his brother Mohaned al-Ali. Iraqi officials report 13 children were among the dead. 27 members of the extended Rakat family were killed.[4]
Reaction
The U.S. military took the stance that the location was a legitimate target. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition deputy chief of staff for U.S. operations in Iraq: "We took ground fire and we returned fire. We estimate that around 40 were killed. But we operated within our rules of engagement."[3] American fire included both bullets and bombs, leaving behind craters.[4]
USMC Major General James Mattis said the idea of a wedding was implausible, "How many people go to the middle of the desert ... to hold a wedding 80 miles (130km) from the nearest civilization? These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive." The Rakats and the Sabahs were residents of Mukaradeeb.[3] He later added that it had taken him thirty seconds to deliberate on bombing the location.[5]
In the aftermath, Kimmitt said, "There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration. There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations, too." Video footage obtained by the Associated Press seems to contradict this view. The video shows a series of scenes of a wedding celebration, and footage from the following day showing fragments of musical instruments, pots and pans and brightly colored beddings used for celebrations, scattered around a destroyed tent.[4][6]
See also
Incidents
- Ishaqi incident
- Haditha killings
- Mahmudiyah killings
- Deh Bala wedding party bombing
- My Lai Massacre in Vietnam
References
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Rory McCarthy, '"US soldiers started to shoot us, one by one"', Guardian Unlimited, (21 May 2004). Retrieved 4 September 2006.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 AP, Iraq Wedding-Party Video Backs Survivors' Claims," 24 May 2004
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., p. 245
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1223563,00.html
- http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20040521_1.htm
