Killings Sting Proud Battalion
BAGHDAD -- The men from Task Force 1-41 fought the battle for Sadr City last summer, chasing Al Mahdi militiamen through the slums in 120-degree heat. A year earlier, the unit had helped lead the charge into Baghdad.
The 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment has a distinguished combat history, from the D-Day landing to the Iraq desert campaign of the Persian Gulf War. Its motto: "Straight and Stalwart."
Last week, in a makeshift military courtroom, the unit's reputation came under assault. Soldiers from 1-41 described how a member of a rogue platoon hauled an unarmed Iraqi man away from his family one hot August morning and casually fired two shots into his head. Then he photographed the corpse.
As disturbing as the testimony was for soldiers from a proud unit, it was just one episode in a shocking series of killings. Over a period of 26 days in August and September, seven 1-41 soldiers were charged with six murders on two continents.
Soldiers have described renegade infantrymen who bragged about their kills. In one case, they testified, soldiers from a 1-41 platoon argued over who should get credit for killing an unarmed Iraqi because they had bet on who would be the first.
Four of the victims were Iraqi civilians. In addition to the two alleged executions, soldiers were accused of shooting a critically wounded Iraqi teenager in a "mercy killing," and shooting an unarmed Iraqi, who, according to two soldiers, was waving a white cloth. Two more infantrymen were charged with murdering two fellow 1-41 soldiers in Kansas.
Court testimony suggests a unit in chaos, plagued by a handful of out-of-control soldiers and riven by internal divisions.
Soldiers said one squad leader ordered his men to take no prisoners, and at least one soldier who complained about misconduct had to be transferred for his safety.
Another 1-41 soldier was punished for kicking an Iraqi corpse after urine from the body dripped onto the soldier's hands.
Experts in military history say they cannot recall another case where so many members from a single unit were charged with so many killings in so short a period. In all, a dozen American servicemen in Iraq have been charged with killing civilians. During the Vietnam War, 122 servicemen were convicted of killing noncombatants.
