Mukaradeeb killings

The Mukaradeeb killings refers to the American shooting and bombing of a wedding party in Mukaradeeb, a small village in Iraq near the border with Syria, on May 19, 2004.

Incident

American officials stated that the location was a "suspected foreign fighter safe house." [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1221658,00.html Rory McCarthy, '"US soldiers started to shoot us, one by one"', "Guardian Unlimited", (May 21 2004)] . Retrieved 4 September 2006.]

The wedding united members of the already related Rakat and Sabah families: Ashad Rakat was the groom and Rutba, his bride. Witnesses report that the American bombing started at 3am. 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.

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." American fire included both bullets and bombs, leaving behind craters.AP, [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120721,00.html Iraq Wedding-Party Video Backs Survivors' Claims] ," May 24, 2004]

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."

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.

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.

References

External links

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1223563,00.html
* http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/may2004/wedd-m27.shtml
* http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20040521_1.htm