Newly released images from the 2005 massacre by US Marines in Haditha, Iraq, have sent shockwaves across the globe, sparking widespread outrage on social media.
The New Yorker magazine obtained and published these graphic photos, which had been hidden for nearly two decades, through the Freedom of Information Act after years of legal battles. The images reveal the brutal aftermath of the massacre, where 24 civilians, including a three-year-old girl, were killed, many shot in the head at close range.
The release of these photos serves as a grim reminder of the atrocities committed by US forces during their occupation of Iraq, adding to a long list that includes the horrors of Abu Ghraib prison. Despite the gravity of the Haditha massacre, those responsible never faced imprisonment.
Social media has erupted with condemnation, with users highlighting the massacre as a clear example of the war crimes perpetrated by the US military in Iraq and beyond, and the persistent lack of accountability for these actions.
Journalist Murtaza Hussain emphasized, "This is what the US military was doing in Iraq," while activist Greg J Stoker declared on X, “This is big. US interventionism must end now.”
American journalist Max Blumenthal also weighed in, stating that the photos are a direct indictment of the current US political establishment, including the president who supported the Iraq invasion.
The massacre and the subsequent cover-up attempts by Washington have drawn comparisons to the ongoing Israeli actions in Gaza.
The US invaded Iraq in 2003 under the false pretext of Baghdad possessing weapons of mass destruction, leading to widespread death and destruction. Although the US claimed to end its combat mission in Iraq in 2021, it still maintains around 2,500 troops in the country under the guise of advisors.
In 2020, the Iraqi parliament voted to expel foreign forces following the US assassination of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani and Iraq’s PMU deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, further intensifying calls for the end of foreign military presence in the region.
