…then it does.
BEIJI, Iraq – The U.S. Army will investigate charges that American soldiers were involved in the killings of four Iraqi relatives, including a woman who had been raped, military officials said Friday.
Note the passive construction ‘ a woman who had been raped’ – how they delicately dance around the idea of who actually did it, as though the rape just sort of did itself. It’s the US soldiers who allegedly raped her – one has admitted it – but you’d never know that the way the AP writes about it.
The accused belong to the same batallion as the those two who were kidnapped, tortured and beheaded so recently and this rape and murder seems to have taken place before that, which sheds a different light entirely on the latter. Were the kidnappings revenge for the rape and murder? Mistaken identity, or would any soldier do?
It might be so but no doubt more info will come to light soon enough, since one of the military is outraged enough to leak details like this to the AP:
[…]
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he had no additional details on the incident but added that the military routinely investigates all allegations of misconduct.
However, a U.S. official close to the investigation said at least one of the soldiers, all assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, has admitted his role and been arrested. Two soldiers from the same regiment were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah.
The official told the AP the accused soldiers were from the same platoon as the two slain soldiers. The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded.
The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one of them to reveal the rape-slaying on June 22.
[My emphasis] Weren’t the murdered soldiers also castrated? I seem to remember hearing that at some point on the BBC. That would seem to support the theory these two events might be connected.
