Raping innocence

"She was a beautiful girl," said one of the relatives of Abeer Qasim Hamza, the 15-year old Iraqi girl who was raped and killed along with her parents and 5-year old sister four months ago.

"She complained to her mother about trouble from American soldiers. She gave them no encouragement as we are a conservative and respectable family."

Abeer was born on August 19, 1991 in Baghdad, according to the identity card issued in 1993 and provided to Reuters by a relative. Abeer’s ID features a photograph of her at 18 months, with wide eyes and a lick of her hair over her brow.

Her death certificate, dated March 13, gives the same birth date.

Abeer was found by one of her relatives at the family house on March 12 after she had died from "gunshot wounds to the head, with burns," according to documents, signed by doctor Wael Habib and a registrar.

"Gunshot to the head and chest. Face unrecognizable due to burns," read the certificate for Abeer Qasim Hamza, whom mayor Muayyad Fadhil said was 16 when she died and had been raped.

The rape of the young Iraqi girl by a group of U.S. Marines who had been plotting to attack the family house and rape her a week before they carry out their crime in a corner of Mahmoudiya district is a miniature of what has been going on in the war-devastated Iraq at the hands of the American army who came to "liberate" the nation and plant the flag of democracy.

This is what the American "liberators" are doing in Iraq, raping girls and killing civilians inside their houses.

And it wasn’t part of a search operation or a raid on "suspected targets".

The U.S. soldiers, who carried out the crime in the Iraqi town of Mahmoudiya, had been manning a checkpoint near the family house.

After raping Abeer and killing all her family members who were at the house, the soldiers decided to burn the bodies to cover up the crime, Reuters quoted Mr. Fadhil earlier.

But bloodstains can still be seen in the one-storey home.

"They were found killed and burned on the morning of March 12," Fadhil said.

The hospital received four burned bodies that day, said director Dawood al-Taie. But the death certificates were issued on March 13.

The American soldiers attempted at the beginning to throw the blame on what they call “insurgents”. But the horrific truth of their crime was uncovered.

Some Americans still believe that "insurgents" in Iraq commit crimes a hundred times more than those committed by the U.S. Army.

Even if it was true. Who’s behind the prosperity and influence of those "insurgents"? The answer is clear, it’s the U.S. occupation, stated an editorial on Azzaman.

The vicious and heinous rape and murder of the Iraqi girl and her family is the fifth case of serious crime being investigated by the U.S. military.

16 U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder over the past month, as many as in the previous three years of war, according to Reuters.

The rape-murder case topped the crime of occupying a country on a false pretext and basis of lies and deception.