The Mirror
Daily Mirror ReportRoaring flames engulf a corpse after a person alleged to be a US Marine fighting in the Iraq war poured liquid from a petrol can on bodies.
It is claimed the grisly image is a dead insurgent at an unnamed compound in Fallujah in 2004 and is one of several passed to defence bosses by a website.
Lindsey German, of the UK Stop the War Coalition said: “This is the real face of war. It was a brutal war and a brutal occupation. It was absolutely clear that in Fallujah this was how US solders were behaving.”
The US Marine Corps said yesterday it had launched a probe after the photos were sent to website TMZ anonymously.
Some of the digital images show an individual in what appears to be a Marine uniform dousing bodies with liquid from a military fuel can.
Others show flaming bodies or charred remains. One shows a person in a Marine uniform kneeling near a skull and looking at the camera. Their face has been blurred out.
Officials said that it was important to determine if the bodies were being burned to desecrate them or for some other reason, such as because they were decaying.
Marine Captain Richard Ulsh said: “We are investigating the veracity of the photographs, circumstances surrounding the photographs and, if possible, the identity of the service members involved.”
Ms German added: “The people of Fallujah are still suffering fighting 10 years on. It has been a long, brutal experience.”
US marine pouring gasoline on dead Iraqi
The magazine TMZ has started publishing from the 41 photos it has been sent which show US marines burning Iraqi bodies in Falujah in 2004. As Spencer Ackerman reports in The Guardian, “Desecration of corpses is a potential violation of the laws of war and the US uniform code of military justice.”
See also: What we’re not being told about Falluja by the ex-US marine who helped destroy it in 2004
