On a dusty field outside Fallujah, where wounded American soldiers were rushed off the battlefield, a young Sudanese man lay bleeding and trying to talk his way out of trouble. Mohammed Khalid had a small spot in his left shoulder where an American bullet had entered and a large gaping hole on his biceps where it had exited. The identification number "14-5" was written on his chest in black marker. Khalid, a gaunt 19-year-old with a scraggly beard, screamed as a doctor dressed his wounds. "I came here for the work," he said. "I know nothing about Iraq."
The troops who brought Khalid in said he and the three other foreigner fighters lying on field stretchers were found with weapons in a covered ditch. A Marine Corps intelligence sergeant, who wouldn't give his name, said the men "came out of their holes and just surrendered."
| "Don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I don't wanna be a martyr!" |
There was no talk here about video footage that purportedly shows an American Marine killing a wounded insurgent, an incident that Marine officials are investigating. Military personnel here didn't know about the video or the incident.
| "We're busy. We'll look at it later. Piss off." |
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