Mahmudiyah incident
| Mahmoudiyah Killings | |
|---|---|
Abeer Qassim Hamza at the age of seven
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| Location | Yusufiyah, Iraq |
| Coordinates | 33°04′N 44°22′E / 33.067°N 44.367°E |
| Date | March 12, 2006 |
| Target | Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi |
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Attack type
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War rape, mass murder |
| Deaths | 4 |
| Perpetrators | 5 U.S. Army soldiers from 1st Battalion, 502d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) |
 The Rape Scene in Mahmudiya (BBC) |
The Mahmudiyah rape and killings involved the gang-rape and killing of 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and the murder of her family by United States Army soldiers on March 12, 2006. It occurred in the family's house to the southwest of Yusufiyah, a village to the west of the town of Al-Mahmudiyah, Iraq. Others of al-Janabi's family killed included her 34-year-old mother Fakhriyah Taha Muhasen, 45-year-old father Qassim Hamza Raheem, and six-year-old sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza Al-Janabi.
Charged with the crimes of rape and murder were five U.S. Army soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment consisting of Paul E. Cortez, James P. Barker, Jesse V. Spielman, Brian L. Howard, and Steven D. Green, whom the U.S. Army discharged before becoming aware of the crime. Spielman and Green were convicted and the three others pleaded guilty, resulting in multiple life sentences.
Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi (عبير قاسم حمزة الجنابي) (August 19, 1991 – March 12, 2006), lived with her mother and father (Fakhriya Taha Muhasen, 34, and Qassim Hamza Raheem, 45, respectively) and their three other children: 6-year-old daughter Hadeel Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 11-year-old son Mohammed, and his 9-year-old younger brother Ahmed. Their house was situated approximately 200 meters (220 yd) from a six-man U.S. traffic checkpoint, southwest of the village of Yusufiyah, which lies west of the larger township of Al-Mahmudiyah (in the coalition-termed area "Triangle of Death").
According to her neighbours, Abeer spent most of her days at home, as her parents would not allow her to go to school because of security concerns. From their checkpoint, the soldiers would often watch Abeer doing her chores and tending the garden. The neighbors had warned Abeer's father of this, but he replied it was not a problem as she was just a small girl.
Abeer's brother Mohammed (who along with his younger brother was at school at the time of the killings and thus survived) recalls that the soldiers often searched the house. On one such occasion, Green ran his index finger down Abeer's cheek, an action which had terrified her.
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Wikipedia