USA: UNITED NATIONS IRAQI AMBASSADOR SAYS US TROOPS SHOT AND KILLED HIS UNARMED COUSIN IN IRAQ

Record ID: 338157

  • Title: USA: UNITED NATIONS IRAQI AMBASSADOR SAYS US TROOPS SHOT AND KILLED HIS UNARMED COUSIN IN IRAQ
  • Date: 5th July 2005
  • Summary: (BN17) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 5, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF IRAQI MISSION 0.05 2. CLOSE OF SIGN "PERMANENT DELEGATION OF IRAQ TO THE UNITED NATIONS" 0.08 3. VARIOUS OF IRAQI UNITED NATIONS AMBASSADOR SAMIR SUMAIDAIE SEATED AT DESK 0.22 4. PICTURE OF THE SON OF SUMAIDAIE'S COUSIN, MOHAMMED A
  • Embargoed: 20th July 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA4PDMNJ7JYA43Q5I8HV6LV0JUX
  • Story Text: Iraq UN ambassador says US Marines in Iraq shot his unarmed cousin.



    Iraq's U.N. ambassador accused U.S. Marines of firing at and
    killing the son of his cousin during a house raid near the western town of
    Haditha on June 25.

    Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie said Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, the 21-year old
    son of his first cousin, was shot by Marines during a raid at his father's
    house in the village of Al-Shaikh Hadid, near a U.S. military base at the
    Haditha Dam.

    According to the ambassador, Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, an engineering
    student, was at his father's house on June 25 when Marines knocked at the door
    at about 10 a.m. local time. The Marines, who were accompanied by an
    interpreter, asked the young al-Sumaidaie if there were weapons in the house.

    Family members last saw the young man alive when he went to another room to
    get a rifle that the family said had no live ammunition but only blanks, the
    ambassador said.

    When the Marines left the house about an hour later, the interpreter
    told the mother of the family that her son had been shot and killed,
    Ambassador Sumaidaie said. The family found the young al-Sumaidaie dead with a
    single bullet wound to the neck. Said the ambassador, "The essential
    facts are that he was unarmed, was certainly not a terrorist, there were no
    weapons in the house, he was in his own home, and he was killed. He is no
    longer with us."
    Sumaidaie, in a three page written statement, called for an
    investigation of the killing, saying outrage over the incident could
    jeopardize public support for the United States in Iraq. He hopes the
    military will seek out and take appropriate action against the people who
    killed his cousin's son. Said Sumaidaie, "It will send the right message
    to the community. Because that tells them that this is not American policy,
    Iraqi lives are not cheap in the eyes of Americans and the Americans will do
    something about it. These messages must be sent out because they are
    necessary for us to continue with the process of rebuilding Iraq."
    In response to Sumaidaie, the U.S. military said in a statement from
    Camp Fallujah in Iraq that the ambassador's allegations "roughly
    correspond to an incident involving coalition forces on that day in that
    general location."
    "We take these allegations seriously and will thoroughly
    investigate this incident to determine what happened," said Maj. Gen.

    Stephen T. Johnson.

    On Tuesday, 100 hundred Iraqi and 1,000 US troops launched a fresh
    offensive against insurgents in the Sunni Arab western province of Al-Anbar,
    focusing along the Euphrates River between the cities of Haditha and Hit, the
    U.S. military said.

    Sumaidaie said the incident undermined Iraqis' trust in the United
    States and raised questions about whether other innocent civilians have been
    killed.



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