"Iraq to put 15 to death for ’06 massacre" by Associated Press / June 17, 2011
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court yesterday sentenced 15 alleged members of Al Qaeda to death for their role in the 2006 wedding party massacre of 70 people, considered one of the most horrific attacks carried out by Sunni-led militants during the insurgency....
Since the defendants’ arrest last month, Iraqi state TV has been airing their confessions in what is seen as an attempt by embattled Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to show he is protecting the nation.
Tortured out of them?
In videotaped confessions, the defendants said the motive behind the massacre was that the groom was Shi’ite and the bride was Sunni.
What?
(That fact is why I'm no longer buying the sectarian s*** pushed by my war promoter, I mean, newspaper)
At a fake checkpoint set up by insurgents disguised as Iraqi soldiers, the families were stopped, kidnapped, and taken to a remote area where they were separated.
According to the confessions, the insurgents threw 15 screaming children into the Tigris River after hanging concrete blocks around their necks. Blindfolded men were lined up on the river bank with their hands tied behind their backs and were shot, execution-style.
Then the insurgents raped the women, including the bride, who had her chest slashed and was left to bleed to death in front of her husband.
In a statement issued after the verdict, Maliki thanked the court and described the insurgents as “violent criminals who shocked all Iraqis with their hideous crime.’’
Some international human rights organizations have questioned whether Iraqi courts complied with international standards for fairness....
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