We have to confront the Amara incident in May 2004... It appears that 22 Iraqis were taken into detention alive, only to be returned in body bags 20 hours later.
But worse still, the evidence suggests a catalogue of abuse: first, that soldiers had earlier executed Iraqis in front of a number of witnesses; second, some of them were executed by shooting at close range or strangulation; third, many of the bodies show clear evidence of torture; fourth, bodies had been mutilated with eyes gouged out, and multiple stab wounds and body parts severed (including a penis); and fifth, trained Iraqi medical operatives attest that many of the wounds were fresh and that deaths had occurred just before the bodies were returned. A survivor's statement gives shocking evidence of hearing the screams of Iraqis being tortured, and hearing one of my client's relatives executed by shooting.