The Ishaqi massacre refers to the reported

mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

of Iraqi civilians allegedly committed by

United States forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

in the town of

Ishaqi Ishaqi (also known as "Al Ishaqi") ( ar, ناحية الإسحاقي) is a small town in the Balad District, Iraq, Balad District of the Saladin Governorate of Iraq, about 60 miles (96 km) north of Baghdad. War crimes 1st 2006 incident In March ...

on 15 March 2006. After the massacre, Iraqi police accused the US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people, including five children and four women, before blowing up their house. A US military spokesman at the time responded that it was "highly unlikely that

he allegations He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

were true". US authorities said US troops were involved in a firefight after a tip-off that an

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

supporter was visiting the house. According to the Americans, the building collapsed under heavy fire, killing four people—a suspect, two women and a child. Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2011 revealed that Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, immediately raised questions about the incident. In June 2006 the US indicated they were re-investigating the incident, after the BBC obtained a tape from "a hardline

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

group" that appeared to contain evidence supporting the allegations of the Iraqi police. The investigation found that US military personnel had followed the proper procedures and rules of engagement, and were not guilty of misconduct. The Iraqi government immediately rejected the results of the US probe, stating they would continue their own investigation.Brian Brady
''Furious Iraq demands apology as US troops are cleared of massacre''
, '' The Scotsman'', June 4, 2006 Immediately after the US investigation was closed, the Iraqi government responded by opening their own investigation, with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki aide Adnan al-Kazimi stating that the US report "was not fair for the Iraqi people and the children who were killed." In September 2011, the Iraqi government reopened their investigation after WikiLeaks published a leaked diplomatic cable in which Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, appeared to support the version of events given by residents in Ishaqi. Alston cabled the US State Department a few weeks after the incident. Alston stated that US forces handcuffed and executed the residents of a house on 15 March 2006. The residents included five children under 5 years of age. Autopsies later confirmed that "all the corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ishaqi Incident Iraq War 2006 in Iraq Civilian casualties in the Iraq War United States military scandals Massacres committed by the United States

See also

References