Iraq: News of the alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi woman by US soldiers and the killing of her family "reveals the real, ugly face of America", Iraq's main organisation of Sunni Muslim clerics said yesterday.
The Muslim Scholars Association, a fierce critic of the US occupation, was a rare voice raised in anger, however, with few in the Iraqi media willing to broach the taboo topic of rape since US commanders revealed their investigation on Friday.
"[We] condemn this grotesque crime and say to the entire world . . . it reveals the real ugly face of America," the association said in a statement on its website.
Coming after announcements of US investigations into other suspected murders and killings, including that of 24 people in the western town of Haditha, the added element of rape may cause particular outrage.
Only one major Baghdad newspaper however carried an account of the case, in which at least three soldiers face investigation over the rape and the killing of the Iraqi woman and three other people in the family home at Mahmudiya, just south of the city, in March. Initial reactions of Iraqis appear muted partly due to the widespread view that such misconduct is already common and partly due to embarrassment about discussing such subjects.
In recent months, officials say, commanders have cracked down on rogue soldiers in a bid to gain the trust of ordinary Iraqis and of their new government after three years of growing resentment that US officers say risks fuelling the insurgency.
- (Reuters)