NYT: Iraqi Medic Describes Scene of Rape and Killings

Iraqi Medic Describes Scene of Rape and Killings

By KIRK SEMPLE | August 6, 2006

BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 — An Iraqi army medic described in gruesome detail today the tableau of violence he encountered when he walked into the house where, according to investigators, American soldiers raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her sister and parents.

In testimony during an American military hearing here, the medic said he found the naked and burned body of the girl, with a bullet hole under an eye, and the bullet-ridden bodies of her sister and parents.

The medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, said that after witnessing the scene, he “was sick for almost two weeks.”

He was one of at least four witnesses to testify today. The hearing, which is expected to continue for several days, is the latest chapter in the American military’s prosecution of the case involving five American soldiers, who are accused of involvement in the March 12 rape and murder of the girl and her family in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.

The case, one of several in which American soldiers have been accused of killing unarmed civilians, has embarrassed the American military, infuriated Iraqis and strained relations between the American authorities in Baghdad and their Iraqi counterparts.

The hearing, conducted under the Article 32 Uniform Code of Military Justice, is roughly equivalent to a grand jury proceeding and will determine whether there is enough evidence to convene a court-martial to try the soldiers.

Specialist James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, Pfc. Bryan L. Howard and Sgt. Paul E. Cortez have been accused of rape, murder and arson; military prosecutors say they attempted to set their rape victim on fire to conceal evidence.

The fifth soldier in the hearing, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, is accused of dereliction of duty for not reporting the crimes, but he is not thought to have been at the house.

Steven D. Green, a private who was discharged in May after a psychiatric evaluation, faces rape and murder charges in a federal court in Kentucky, where he is being tried. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Before the army medic testified today, two other Iraqi witnesses took the stand, but reporters were barred from hearing them and officials did not reveal details about their testimonies. A trial lawyer had requested the restriction out of concern that public exposure of the witnesses might endanger them.

Capt. William Fischbach, a military prosecutor, showed the medic several crime scene photographs to confirm that they were in the same place that he found them.

But defense lawyers asked the medic if the family members might already have been dead when they were shot.

“I believe that’s how they were killed, which is what I’ve told you,” the medic said. But he admitted under cross-examination that he could only assume that the family had been killed by gunshots.

Among the details he provided the hearing officers, the medic said parts of the man’s head and brain “were all over the place.”

A fourth witness, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, the commander of the soldiers’ battalion, testified that he first heard about the attacks on June 19 and immediately began investigating.

Three of the soldiers accused of involvement in the crimes — Specialist Barker, Private Howard and Sergeant Yribe — told him they had no involvement in the incident, said Colonel Kunk, commander of the First Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, Second Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

He said that when he questioned Specialist Barker, the soldier was “very flippant, very confident, and more than willing to answer the questions I had.”

“He said, ‘No sir, no coalition soldier was responsible for the killer — murder of that family and the rape and murder of that little girl,’ ” Colonel Kunk said.

Sergeant Yribe, he said, was the first American soldier to respond to the crime scene and took photographs that became part of the commander’s investigation.

“He said he didn’t have any participation that day,” Colonel Kunk said of Specialist Yribe.

The hearing took place on another day of scattered violence around Iraq.

A suicide bomber wrapped in explosives detonated himself in the middle of a crowd of mourners attending the funeral of a member of the Tikrit city council, an Interior Ministry official said. Five people were killed and 15 wounded, the official added.

At least 15 bodies — all with their hands tied behind their backs and gunshots to the head — were found in different neighborhoods around Baghdad, according to an official at the Interior Ministry.

In Falluja, gunmen assassinated a cleric, Ali Hussein Shalash, when he refused their demands to step out of his car, the police there said.

In a village north of Falluja, a suicide bomber driving a truck detonated his payload near a house that is used by American forces, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or confirmation from the American military.

An improvised bomb exploded inside a minibus in the New Baghdad neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding the minibus driver.

The police in Kirkuk said today that a car carrying four bomb makers blew up on Saturday in an apparent accident. Col. Jassim Kannu of the Kirkuk police force said the men were apparently transporting improvised bombs through the city with the intention of planting them when their cargo exploded.

Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting for this article from Falluja and Kirkuk.