“Kill All Military-Aged Males”

US Officer 'Angry' Iraqi Suspects Taken Alive

By Ben Fenton
Last Updated: 10:15am GMT 14/03/2007
Telegraph.Co.UK

A senior NCO in one of America’s elite units ordered two soldiers to shoot three prisoners taken in Iraq and then cut his own men to make it look like there had been a struggle, a court was told.

The court martial of Staff Sgt Ray Girouard of the 3rd Combat Brigade of the 101st Airborne Div heard that he had been angry with his men for taking three suspected Iraqi insurgents prisoner rather than killing them on contact.

Orders had been given before the raid last May to kill all males of military age, the hearing was told.

Private William Hunsaker, one of the soldiers testifying against Girouard as part of a plea-bargain arrangement which will see Hunsaker sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment, described the incident last May to a court martial in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Hunsaker said Girouard passed on a reprimand from their commanding officer after the private had reported that he had taken prisoners.

Girouard gathered his squad in a house, telling them that their officer was “pretty mad and upset” that the Iraqis were still alive.

“He tells us to cut the ties, let them loose and shoot them,” Hunsaker told the court. The Iraqis were encouraged to run and then shot in the back.

He added that, after the three men were dead, “Girouard boots me over, flips open his pocketknife and said 'it’s got to look good’,” before cutting Hunsaker’s face and arm to give the impression he had been injured in a struggle as the prisoners tried to escape.

Earlier in the year-long investigation, military investigators took evidence from several witnesses who said they heard Col Michael Steele tell his troops to “kill all military-aged males” when they attacked a suspected insurgent base on an island in the Tigris River north of Baghdad.

Col Steele was given a formal reprimand for issuing illegal orders last Jan, but was not accused of complicity in the killing of a total of four suspected insurgents in the incident.

Pte Hunsaker told the court martial that he had agreed to the plea-bargain because “I got tired of lying to everybody and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in prison for - in my eyes - killing three terrorists.” He showed little sign of remorse in the dock.

Two other soldiers accused of murder have also accepted a plea-bargain arrangement and only Girouard denied the charges, arguing that he could not be held accountable for the actions of subordinates.