Haditha
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Haditha (حديثة, al-Haditha) is a city in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar, about 240 km northwest of Baghdad. It is a farming town situated on the Euphrates River at . Its population of around 100,000 people is predominantly Sunni Muslim Arabs. The city lies near the Buhayrat al Qadisiyyah, an artificial lake which was created by the building of the Haditha Dam, the largest hydroelectric facility in Iraq.
In 2005, it became internationally famous as the location of the Haditha killings, allegedly carried out by United States forces in the town.
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[edit] Haditha during the Iraqi Invasion
The Haditha Dam and surrounding areas were initially secured by U.S. troops in April 2003 as part of the invasion of Iraq. An attack on the dam would have severely flooded towns along the Euphrates downstream from Haditha, as well as eliminating an important source of electricity.
As the fighting continued following the fall of Saddam Hussein, Haditha became a center for insurgent activity[citation needed]. It lies between Al-Qaim, an insurgent entry point[citation needed], and Baghdad.
On July 16, 2003 Mohammed Nayil Jurayfi, mayor of Haditha, and his youngest son, Ahmed, were assassinated.[1][2]
In 2004, U.S. troops left a local police force in charge of the city and insurgents rounded up dozens of local police officers and publicly executed them in a soccer stadium.[3]
In May 2005, U.S. forces launched Operation New Market in Haditha against the insurgents controlling the city. However, resistance continued. On August 1, 2005, an ambush killed 6 United States Marine snipers in the city; on August 3, a roadside bomb killed another 14 Marines and their interpreter.
According to an August 2005 report by The Guardian, the town was controlled by insurgents, with US forces making only fleeting visits every few months. Like Al-Qa'im, it had come under a Taliban-like rule, with Western-style items banned and insurgents collecting the salaries of government employees.[4] This insurgent dominance has continued into 2006.[5]
The mayor of Haditha in November of 2005 was Emad Jawad Hamza.[6]
[edit] 2005 Haditha Killings
On 19 November 2005, 24 Iraqi noncombatants, including 11 women and children, were reported to have been killed by 12 Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. The US military is investigating these claims,[7] a captain and a lieutenant colonel have been relieved of duty (another captain was releived on the same day but not for the same incident; see http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/005400.html).[8] Some allege the massacre was in retribution for an incident earlier in the day in which US Marine Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas was killed in a roadside bomb attack on Marines from Kilo Company.[9] In August of 2006 a commission reviewing the killings found probable cause for charging the Marines.[10] The same day, one of the accused Marines sued Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) for libel because of Murtha's characterization of the incident saying the Marines killed the civilians "in cold blood." However, by law, members of Congress are generally immune from such lawsuits.
A report, declassified by October 2007, shows that Marine Corps intelligence operatives have been notified of a plot by Al-Quaeda to demonize the mission by an informant named Muhannad Hassan Hamadi. The informant was snared by 3/1 Marines on December 11 2005 and decided to cooperate[11].
During the November Haditha battle, the insurgents secreted themselves among local civilians to guarantee pursuing Marines would catch innocent civilians in the ensuing crossfire. On January 6, 2006 six insurgents who tried to do the same thing at another location in Haditha were turned in to Coalition authorities before they could mount a similar assault, the report says.
— Nathaniel R. Helms , Defend Our Marines, 6 October 2007
A court martial on Wednesday acquitted a US Marine for his role in the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha in Iraq in 2005, the sixth man to be exonerated in the affair. Lieutenant Andrew Grayson, 27, was declared "not guilty on all charges" by a jury, said a spokesman for the Camp Pendleton military base in southern California where the hearing started on May 28. Grayson had been charged with making false statements and attempting to fraudulently separate from the Marine Corps. He was also charged with obstruction of justice, but the military judge dismissed this charge Tuesday.
Six have now had charges against them dropped, while charges of murder against squad leader Frank Wuterich were changed to the lesser offense of manslaughter. Wuterich faces trial later this year, along with Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, the highest ranking officer accused over the incident who has been charged with dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order.
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[edit] References
- ^ New casualties test US resolve BBC
- ^ Rajiv ChandrasekaranIraqi Mayor's Killing Reinforces Fear "Washington Post" Foreign Service
- ^ Andrew Tilghman U.S. call for Iraqi police in Haditha goes unanswered Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Monday, June 5, 2006
- ^ Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel, The Guardian, August 22, 2005
- ^ U.S. Will Reinforce Troops in West Iraq - washingtonpost.com
- ^ Tim McGirk Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha? Time Magazine
- ^ 'Worst war crime' committed by US in Iraq, telegraph.co.uk, May 27, 2006
- ^ Ali Hamdani and Ned Parker, Marines and the 'massacre': a neighbor tells of aftermath, 29 May, 2006
- ^ BBC 10 O'Clock News, BBC, 2 June, 2006
- ^ U.S. probe implicates Marines - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com
- ^ Bradwell Discovery 19 November 2005
