Soldiers executed in front of locals, claims US

IRAQI forces executed some of the US troops captured in Nasiriyah in front of local people, military officials said yesterday. Seven army mechanics died and five were taken prisoner on Sunday after they took a wrong turn and ran into an ambush.

Iraq claims the victims were killed in fighting, but a video broadcast on Arab TV network Al Jazeera showed several of the troops with bullet wounds to the head, indicating they had been shot at close range.

“When the full story comes out, people will be outraged,” one senior US military official told the New York Times. He said they had learnt of the public executions from a communications intercept.

The five captured soldiers, including a woman, were paraded on TV in an apparent breach of the Geneva Convention governing prisoners of war.

The Pentagon has also accused the Iraqis of other war crimes, including faking surrender and then shooting at US forces.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said up to 30,000 members of the Fedayeen have been deployed to southern Iraq and are using terrorist tactics to fight allied forces.