Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20080727-03
July 27, 2008

Escalation of Force Investigation Complete
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

BAGHDAD – The Multi-National Division - Baghdad investigation into the June 25 escalation of force incident finds that neither the soldiers nor civilians involved in the incident were at fault.

On June 25, MND-B soldiers were traveling south in a four-vehicle convoy on a road adjacent to Baghdad International Airport when they experienced maintenance problems with one of their vehicles.  The soldiers pulled over to the side of the road to assess and recover the vehicle.   While working on the vehicle, a civilian vehicle approached the rear of the convoy at what appeared to the soldiers to be a high rate of speed despite several obstructions in the road. 

Soldiers located at the rear of the convoy perceived the rapidly approaching vehicle as a threat and executed established escalation of force measures.   When the vehicle failed to respond to the soldiers’ warning measures, it was engaged with small arms fire.

Initial statements included information about a weapon in the vehicle; the investigation confirmed no weapon was recovered from the vehicle. The initial statement resulted from the numerous soldier witnesses who strongly believed they were being fired upon from the vehicle, and a misunderstanding that the Iraqi Police arriving at the scene collected a weapon.

A thorough investigation determined that the driver and passengers were law abiding citizens of Iraq.

“This was an extremely unfortunate and tragic incident,” said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff, MND-B and 4th Inf. Div.  “Our deepest regrets of sympathy and condolences go out to the family.  We are taking several corrective measures to amend and eliminate the possibility of such situations happening in the future.”

-30-

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR FOR HIGH-RES PHOTOS, CONTACT THE MULTI-NATIONAL CORPS – IRAQ PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE BY E-MAIL AT:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it