Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre

34°0′28″N 40°12′08″E / 34.00778°N 40.20222°E / 34.00778; 40.20222Date19 May 2004; 19 years ago (2004-05-19)TargetIraqi civiliansMass shooting, bombingDeaths42; including 11 women and 14 childrenPerpetrator United States

The Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre^[1][2] (Arabic: مجزرة حفلة عرس مكر الذيب) refers to the U.S. military's attack on a wedding party in Mukaradeeb, a small village in Anbar Province, Iraq near the border with Syria, on 19 May 2004. The attack killed 42 civilians and wounded many others. The U.S. military denied that a wedding had been hit, claiming the location was a legitimate military target and that insurgents had been killed. U.S. military generals refused to apologize for the massacre.^[3]

Incident

The wedding brought together members of the Rakat and Sabah families: Ashad Rakat was the groom and Rutba Sabah the bride.^{[citation needed]} Witnesses report that the American bombing started at 3:00 AM. Witness at the wedding said that guests had fired weapons into the air. The attack begun at 2:45 AM from the air. Local accounts state that 42 people, including 11 women and 14 children,^[1] were killed during the incident. Iraqi officials reported 13 children among the dead. 27 members of the extended Rakat family were killed.^[4] Following the attack, U.S. officials stated that the location was a "suspected foreign fighter safe house." They stated that "anti-coalition forces" fired first, and that they returned fire killing numerous insurgents and destroying many vehicles. They further said that weapons, foreign passports and money, and a radio were recovered.^[1]

Reaction

The U.S. military took the stance that the location was a legitimate target. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition deputy chief of staff for U.S. operations in Iraq: "We took ground fire and we returned fire. We estimate that around 40 were killed. But we operated within our rules of engagement."^[1][5] U.S. fire included both bullets and bombs, leaving behind craters.^[4]

In the aftermath, Kimmitt said, "There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration. There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations, too." USMC Major General James Mattis asserted that even the idea of a wedding was implausible, "How many people go to the middle of the desert ... to hold a wedding 80 miles (130km) from the nearest civilization? These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naive." The Rakats and the Sabahs were residents of Mukaradeeb.^[1] Mattis later added that it had taken him 30 seconds to deliberate on bombing the location.^[6]

Video footage obtained by the Associated Press contradicts this. The video shows a series of scenes of a wedding celebration, and footage from the following day shows fragments of musical instruments, pots and pans and brightly colored beddings used for celebrations, scattered around a destroyed tent.^[4][7]

Despite evidence against U.S. military, its generals refused to apologize for the actions.^[3]

See also

• Human rights in post-invasion Iraq
• Command responsibility

Incidents

• Ishaqi incident
• Haditha killings
• Mahmudiyah rape and killings
• Deh Bala wedding party bombing
• My Lai Massacre in Vietnam

References

External links

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1223563,00.html
• http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20040521_1.htm

34°00′28″N 40°12′08″E / 34.00778°N 40.20222°E / 34.00778; 40.20222