7 Iraqis Killed In Checkpoint Tragedy
March 31, 2003
(CBS/AP)
"It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, and I hope I never see it again."
Sgt. Mario Manzano
(CBS) U.S. troops killed at least seven Iraqi women and children at a checkpoint Monday when the Iraqis' van would not stop as ordered, U.S. Central Command said.
Two other civilians were wounded at a U.S. Army checkpoint on a highway near Najaf in southern Iraq, according to a Pentagon official and a Central Command statement. The military is investigating, the statement said.
The soldiers involved were from the 3rd Infantry Division, the same unit that lost four soldiers at a checkpoint near Najaf Saturday when an Iraqi soldier dressed as a civilian detonated a car bomb.
The seven dead and two wounded on Monday were among 13 women and children in a van that approached the checkpoint but did not stop, according to the Central Command statement.
It said soldiers motioned for t
life, from my point of view :)