Slaughterhouse of Iraq

By Björn Hallberg

As the U.S. claims to investigate the reprisal attack that left 15 Iraqi civilians dead last year, another chilling and eerily similar allegation has surfaced. As the Iraqi police are increasingly doing their job, one can only wonder not if but when the U.S. will disband the Iraqi security and justice system a second time.

After listing other incidents in the area, the report for March 15 states: “American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Ishaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including five children, four women and two men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals.” Among victims the report lists two five-year-old children, two three-year-olds and a six-month-old baby.

Given the racist and religiously tainted attitudes of many in the American military, these slaughters are in fact endemic and most likely standard practise. The real news here is that they no longer are assured to get away with them scot free. Now all we have to do is get to the bottom of the untold but equally endemic practise of sexual assault. The latter of course requires victims to step forward which is highly unlikely.