NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN

  Video horror captures more sectarian massacres in Iraq

The video images of a series of massacres in Iraq mark a new level of horror in the sectarian killing. A warning that this story contains graphic images of corpses, including some which have been mutilated

Lateline - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 17/03/2006

Click Play To View

 

Video horror captures more sectarian massacres in Iraq Reporter: Stephen McDonell TONY JONES: Graphic footage of a series of massacres has been uncovered in Iraq. The victims are Shiites from a predominantly Sunni area. The video images mark a new level of horror in the sectarian killing sweeping Iraq. Journalist Paul McGeough was given the tapes and his report of the massacres will appear in the 'Age' and 'Sydney Morning Herald' newspapers tomorrow. In a moment, I'll be joined by commentators Paul Monk and Hugh White. But first, this report from Stephen McDonell. And a warning that this story contains graphic images of corpses, including some which have been mutilated. STEPHEN McDONELL: Ibraham sa'ad al-Jabouri is five-years-old. On 29 December he saw his father and two cousins shot and his elder brother knifed to death. He is seen on this video helping authorities look for the corpses. These images were recorded as evidence. Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough was given this tape by an Iraqi tribal sheik. He's currently on assignment in Iraq and spoke to Lateline tonight via satellite-phone. PAUL McGEOUGH, 'SYDNEY MORNING HERALD' CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: The story of Ibrahim Fahd al-Jaburi is that his family were Shi'ite labourers from the south of Iraq working in the brick kilns near a town called Nahrwan, east of Baghdad. They were setting off in their new car to head back to the south of the country when they were stopped at an insurgency checkpoint. STEPHEN McDONELL: The horror of what the boy witnessed is incomprehensible as he and the others were dragged from the car. PAUL McGEOUGH: The boy was made to watch as the four adults in the car, his father, two cousins and brother were frogmarched to a building which had been daubed in insurgency graffiti as the 'Shiite morgue' and this five-year-old watched as one of the four was knifed to death and the other three were shot with kalashnikovs. STEPHEN McDONELL: For some reason the killers spared the boy's life and drove off, leaving him to fend for himself. He was later found by a shepherd. Searching for the four bodies led him back to the scene as he tried to remember the exact location of the killings. Eventually, with the shepherd's help, the corpses were found. Ibrahim and his family are Iraqi Shiites. His father was working in Nahrwan, a Shi'ite area surrounded by Sunni enclaves. To drive anywhere the Shiites of Nahrwan must pass through an area patrolled by Sunni death squads. When Saddam Hussein's government established exclusively Sunni areas in the 1980s, Shiites were forcibly relocated to Nahrawan, creating the area's current sectarian divide. The current round of tit-for-tat sectarian violence was sparked by the bombing of the Samarra mosque - a holy site for Shiites. In the immediate aftermath, there were reports of many killings and fears that Shi'ite reprisals could see the country descend into civil war when 48 men were found dead alongside 10 burnt-out cars. JOHN BRAIN, BBC REPORTER: These men, most of them seem to have been tied up and this could be something to do with the reprisals for the attack on the shrine at Samarra, or it could be another example these alleged death squads which appear to be operating in Iraq at the moment. STEPHEN McDONELL: But the roadside massacre was not a reprisal for the Samarra bombing. The tapes given to Paul McGeough now show the victims to be Shiites. They were driving in convoy to join a protest against the bombing, the day after it happened. The convoy left the same region as Ibrahim and his family called Nahrawan. On their way, their cars were pulled over and burned. Then 48 people were systematically murdered. Most were shot but some appear to have been stabbed and mutilated. PAUL McGEOUGH: I had seen sorts of footage before particularly the nature of the wounds which are in some cases utterly grotesque, but what I hadn't seen and what utterly stunned me was that classic image of the 48 bodies in the ditch. It is an appalling shot and coming on the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, it poses all sorts of questions about where Iraq has come to and where Iraq is going. STEPHEN McDONELL: The tape also shows the ID cards of the victims, including women and children. Sometimes there were multiple family members. Also in a nearby building the spent bullet cartridges were still on the ground. This has shocked the people of Nahrwan where the local mayor says 250 people have been murdered while driving in the last 12 months. PAUL McGEOUGH: We're talking about half an hour from Baghdad where a community of 85,000 people is living in fear. This week they've thrown up their hands in despair and instead of appealing to the security forces, American and Iraqi, to come and protect them they've now asked the Medhi Army - that's a militia run by radical imam Moqtada al-Sadr to come and now protect Nahrwan. STEPHEN McDONELL: A local unemployed Shi'ite kiln worker told Paul McGeough for tomorrow's story that he's so tired and the future is so dark that he now wishes that Saddam Hussein was back because, though he hated him, everything is so much harder now. Stephen McDonell, Lateline.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)