Iraqi insurgents are avenging the rape
and murder of a child by US soldiers

by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

The only known photo of Abeer

Los Angeles, Alta California - May 15, 2007 - (ACN) Most Americans should know by now that Iraqi insurgents have captured three US soldiers. The three soldiers were captured on Saturday near the town of Mahmudiya located south of Baghdad. In a furious and lightening strike, Iraqi insurgents ambushed a US patrol completely decimating four soldiers and capturing three.

What most Americans do not know is that this is the second time an ambush of this type has occurred in the Mahmudiya area with very similar results. On June 16, 2006, Iraqi insurgents ambushed a US checkpoint, killed one soldier and captured two. Four days later, the bodies of the two captured soldiers were found. The bodies were extremely mutilated and showed signs of torture.

There is a connection between the two ambushes and a heinous war crime that occurred on March 12, 2006 in the same town of Mahmudiya. On this day five US soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 502d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky invaded the home of 14 year old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. The soldiers entered the young girl's home and forced her father Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, her mother Qassim Hamza and her baby sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza to an adjoining room. One soldier shot her parents and baby sister in the head and then all proceeded to repeatedly rape Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. After raping the child, the US soldiers poured kerosene on her and burned her to death.

The room were Abeer was raped and burned

Soon after finding the tortured bodies of the soldiers during the first ambush, the Iraqi insurgents made a statement. They said, "We announce the good news to our Islamic nation that God's will was executed and the two crusader animals we had in captivity were slaughtered". This was accompanied by a second statement saying that the group carried out the killings as "revenge for our sister Abeer Qassim al-Janabi who was dishonored by soldiers of the same brigade." The mutiliated soldiers were also from the 1st Battalion, 502d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Yesterday, the Iraqi insurgents who captured the most recent US soldiers said the reason for the deadly ambush was to avenge Abeer Qassim al-Janabi who was viciously raped and murdered by a group of American soldiers in the same region last year. The insurgents said, "You should remember what you have done to our sister Abeer in the same area." Abeer translates into English as “fragrance of flowers.”

The three captured soldiers have been identified by the Pentagon as Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts.; Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, California; and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan.

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