No day goes by without a new horror is revealed; a new crime is committed by the forces of occupation against the people of Iraq. Iraqis witness these horrors day in day out whilst the forces of occupation hide behind the familiar web of lies of denial. This time it is different; this time the forces of occupation shamelessly admit to a distorted version of their crime. The crime scene is the town of Balad, some 70km to the north of Baghdad.

On Monday 10/4/2006, the US forces of occupation began a two-hour shelling of various farms in the AlEshaaqi region, specifically near AlSaffa village, where the US forces of occupation had executed 11 members of AlHarrat family. See the link for IL’s coverage of that crime

http://www.iraqirabita.org/english/index.php?do=article&id=596

Ask why she was murdered? and the US forces of occupation will say she was a ‘terrorist’!

She was 22 years of age, her name was Nahrain and she was a mother of two children, named Aayesha (3 years old) and Haydar (only 40 day old baby). Nahrain’s parents are both Shia, and her loving husband is Sunni making her a symbol of Iraq’s social harmony that stretches from the beginning of time.

Nahrain never imagined her story would one day be told on the news or the internet, and that she will be described as a ‘terrorist’ killed during an American military operation as part of their ‘war on terror’.

Nahrain was asleep in her bed besides her husband (Ahmed AlJarmoot) who was seriously injured from the severity of the shooting to which the family were subjected.

“When the soldiers arrived, they first threw bombs at the front door in order to break it down” says Ahmed’s sister. She went on “after gaining an entry to the family private residence, they started shooting heavily; their dogs went in with them. Then they started body-searching everyone; they showed no respect to the women. As for their helicopters, they did not stop the heavy and indiscriminate shelling of the area surrounding the place. Then, a US soldier entered the bedroom and shot some 30 bullets, after which he called for medical help because he claimed he did not know he had just shot dead a woman. We immediately knew she was killed and Ahmed was seriously injured”.

“The soldier then went away and brought back with him 20 of his fellow soldiers, who carried with them cameras. The photographed the dead body of Nahrain after placing a Kalashnikov on her chest”, Ahmed’s sister continued. US soldiers often place weapons on their victims’ bodies in order to hide their crimes by suggest that their victim had been armed and shooting at the soldiers. Ahmed’s sister went on to say “Next, they started beating up her brothers without any apparent reason before arresting them and leaving the family house with the dead body of Nahrain”.

If indeed Nahrain had been shooting at the US soldiers of occupation, then she would have died defending her home, her honour and her family in the ugly face of the occupation sending a message to the world of what the Iraqis think of the criminal occupation and its soldiers. If she was not shooting at the soldiers, then she could not have been a ‘terrorist’, and instead she was murdered in cold blood like many other innocent Iraqis who lose their lives every day by the bullets of the criminal occupation.