Iraqis drag four US bodies through streets

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 01, 2004

Iraqis drag four US bodies through streets

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

In a scene reminiscent of Somalia, frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of four American contractors through the streets of a town west of Baghdad on Wednesday and strung two of them up from a bridge after rebels ambushed their SUVs.

Five U.S. soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division also were killed when a bomb exploded under their M-113 armored personnel carrier north of Fallujah, making it the bloodiest day for Americans in Iraq since Jan. 8.

The four contract workers were killed in Fallujah, a Sunni Triangle city about 35 miles west of Baghdad and scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the American occupation a year ago.

Chanting "Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans," residents cheered after the grisly assault on two four-wheel-drive civilian vehicles left both SUVs in flames.

Residents in Fallujah said insurgents attacked the contractors with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. After the attack, a jubilant crowd of civilians, none of whom appeared to be armed, gathered to celebrate, dragging the bodies through the street and hanging two of them from the bridge. Many of those in the crowd were excited young boys who shouted slogans in front of television cameras.

Associated Press Television News pictures showed one man beating a charred corpse with a metal pole. Others tied a yellow rope to a body, hooked it to a car and dragged it down the main street of town. Two blackened and mangled corpses were hung from the green, iron bridge spanning the Euphrates River.

The White House blamed terrorists and remnants of Saddam Hussein's former regime for the "horrific attacks" on the American contractors.

"It is offensive, it is despicable the way these individuals have been treated," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Eevidence indicated they worked for Blackwater Security Consulting, a company based in Moyock, N.C., the company said in a statement. The security firm hires former military members from the United States and other countries to provide security training and guard services. In Iraq, the company was hired by the Pentagon to provide security for convoys that delivered food in the Fallujah area, the company statement said.

The abuse and mutilation of the contractors' corpses was similar to the scene more than a decade ago in Somalia, when a mob dragged corpses of U.S. soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American withdrawal from the African nation. The images were broadcast worldwide and became the subject of the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."

Source: agencies

Questions?Comments? Click here

Death toll of Iraq bombings rises to 182

Explosions rock central Baghdad

Israel's killing of Yassin fuels conflict: Commentary ( 2 Messages)

How the US could improve its image abroad ( 14 Messages)

US urged not to fingerprint Chinese ( 10 Messages)

China hunts corrupt officials who abscond overseas ( 3 Messages)

Seven Chinese activists land on Diaoyu Islands ( 4 Messages)