Iraq Haditha - Reax to claims of massacre in Haditha; girl says she witnessed incident
NAME: IRQ HADITHA 20060603I
TAPE: EF06/0484
IN_TIME: 10:49:10:20
DURATION: 00:03:55:21
SOURCES: AP TELEVISION
DATELINE: Haditha, 2 June 2006
RESTRICTIONS:
SHOTLIST
1. Various of sign in Arabic reading "Haditha welcomes you" on road into town
2. Tracking shot of main road in Haditha
3. Various of site where roadside bomb exploded that killed a Marine before the alleged shootings in Haditha occurred, pan to houses
4. Car debris on ground and pan to one of the houses where some of alleged victims of November 19 shootings were killed
5. Wide shot front door of house
6. Close-up of circled bullet hole in the door
7. Various of names of the dead written in Arabic on bricks of the house, names: Noor, Safa, Zainab, Mohamed, Aisha, Saba
8. Set-up shot of Iman Waleed Abdul Hameed sitting on sofa (she lived in a different house from the one shown in these pictures. After her family died she now lives elsewhere in Haditha)
9. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Iman Waleed Abdul Hameed, survivor of alleged shooting:
"My name is Iman Waleed Abdul Hameed. They killed my brother Abdullah Waleed, my uncle Jaheed, my uncle Rasheed, my father Waleed, my mother Asmaa and my grandmother Khumaissa. Only we survived. Me, Iman, my brother Abdul Rahman and my sister Asya."
10. Lawyer for Haditha claimants, Khaled Salem Rsayef, opening door of victims' house (the one with names written on bricks) and entering house of victims
11. Interiors of house
12. Close-up of writing on the wall in English reading "B7" and "B2" and "B3" and "B4" (demarcating bullets, written there during original US investigation of incident)
13. Pan of windows in house
14. Various interiors of house
15. Television with bullet hole in screen
16. Various of shower
17. Damage to wall from grenade impact
18. Rsayef
19. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Khaled Salem Rsayef, lawyer for Haditha claimants:
"They (the US forces) sealed off the whole city for a month completely, not allowing everyone to enter the city and arresting anyone who speaks about the incident so the issue did not appear on television for along time. The truth is to say the ones who provoked the issue is the Americans themselves (Time magazine)."
20. Sign in Arabic reading "Haditha General Hospital"
21. Dr Waleed Abdul Khaliq al Obaidi, manger of Haditha General Hospital, checking patient on stretcher
22. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Dr Waleed Abdul Khaliq al Obaidi, manager of Haditha General Hospital:
"Most of the casualties from the medical point of view had bullet shots in the head and chest, and one of the bodies was completely charred."
23. Wide shot of street in Haditha, pan to cemetery
24. Various of graves and Rsayef reading the Quran
STORYLINE
A lawyer representing families of Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by U.S. Marines in Haditha claimed on Friday that three or four Marines carried out the shootings while 20 more waited outside the homes.
The lawyer said victims' relatives had turned down a request by U.S. investigators to exhume the victims' bodies for forensic tests.
New footage shot by AP Television News in Haditha on Friday showed scattered rocks at the site where a roadside bomb apparently exploded on November 19, killing one Marine, shortly before the shootings occurred.
It also shows one of the houses where victims of the alleged shootings lived.
On the exterior of the stone wall of the house, the names of the family members allegedly killed within are marked in Arabic: Noor, Safa, Zainab, Mohamed, Aisha, Saba.
The house is now empty - inside its walls are pockmarked with bullet holes marked with numbers and arrows that appeared to have been written by US military investigators.
A dusty TV with an apparent bullet hole in the corner and a sewing machine sit on the floor as furniture has been pushed to the side of the emptied house.
Iman Walid Abdul-Hameed said she was in the house when the shootings occurred, and her brother and several other relatives had been killed.
Lawyer Khaled Salem Rsayef is representing some of the families.
Rsayef said that in the aftermath of the incident US forces sealed off the city and arrested anyone who spoke of the alleged shootings, to stop the news reaching the media.
The US military said on Friday it will cooperate with the Iraqi government in its own investigation of Haditha and other incidents of alleged wrongdoing by US troops.
The Marines enraged by the loss of a comrade, stand accused of storming into nearby homes in the area and allegedly shot occupants dead as well as several men in a taxi that arrived at the scene of the blast, according to US lawmakers briefed by military officials.