US Soldiers Executed Iraqi Toddlers: WikiLeaks

In 2006, a group of US soldiers burst into a house in Ishaqi, Iraq, where they handcuffed and executed at least 10 people—including an infant and four other children, none older than five years old—then called an airstrike to cover up the evidence. Or at least that’s the conclusion a UN investigator reached, according to an unclassified diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last week. The cable contains questions for US authorities, which they appear to have never answered, the investigator tells the McClatchy Newspapers.

“The tragedy is that this elaborate system of communications is in place,” the investigator says, “but the Human Rights Council does nothing to follow up when states ignore issues raised with them.” The US has long maintained that the house was bombed during a firefight, dismissing witness reports that troops had entered the house before the airstrike. Autopsy results revealed that all the dead had been handcuffed and then shot in the head execution-style. (More UN Human Rights Council stories.)