Iraqi Police Likely Killed U.S. Civilians
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James Joyner | Thursday, March 11, 2004 |
UPI: Iraqi police likely killed U.S. civilians
Iraqi Police were likely responsible for Tuesday’s murders of two U.S. civilian employees of the occupation government, local investigators said.The murders of Fern Holland, 33, a women’s rights advocate, another unidentified American and their Iraqi translator outside the southern Iraqi town of Hilla Tuesday afternoon were committed by men in Iraqi police uniforms, according to witnesses. And local police officials insist they were actually police and not imposters.
The two American victims are the first Coalition Provisional Authority civilians killed in Iraq, CPA officials said.
In more than a dozen separate interviews with police officials and local eyewitnesses — few of whom would speak on the record but told a basically similar version of what happened Tuesday — a story has emerged that is very different from the one reported Wednesday. The version told to UPI Thursday is also supported by physical evidence at the crime scene.
Coalition officials told reporters Wednesday that the car carrying the three victims had been stopped by a phony checkpoint on the road between the Iraqi towns of Hilla and Karbala, about 90 minutes south of Baghdad. After stopping the vehicle, imposter police opened fire on the car, killing the three, according to that account.
Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez – the American commander of coalition military forces in Iraq — and the Polish defense minister told reporters Wednesday that they believed imposter police set up a phony roadblock.
Not good. I suppose we don’t have a perfect screening mechanism for our own police forces; this sort of thing is probably inevitable.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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