At Pentagon orders, US snipers are "baiting" Iraqis by scattering items such as detonation cord, plastic explosives and ammunition and then shooting whoever shows up to pick up the items, the Washington Post reported on Monday, September 24.
"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon, said in a sworn statement.
"Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against US forces."
The classified program was described in investigative documents related to charges against three US snipers of murdering Iraqis and placing items to conceal the killing.
Documents obtained by the Post from family members of the accused soldiers showed that the "baiting" tactic was encouraged by Pentagon.
Didier said members of the US military's Asymmetric Warfare Group visited his unit in January.
They later passed ammunition boxes filled with the "drop items" to be used "to disrupt the AIF [Anti-Iraq Forces] attempts at harming Coalition Forces and give us the upper hand in a fight," he added.
US Army officials declined to discuss the classified program.
It is yet unclear how many people were killed through the baiting tactic.
Planting Evidence
Three US snipers -- Spec. Jorge Sandoval, Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley and Sgt. Evan Vela - face charges of killing Iraqis and placing items to conceal the murders.
Sandoval and Hensley are accused of placing a spool of wire - often used by Iraqi resistance fighters to detonate roadside bombs-- into the pocket of an Iraqi man shot dead by Sandoval on April 27 at Hensley's order.
The man had been cutting grass with a rusty sickle when he was shot, according to court documents.
Two weeks later, Hensley ordered Vela to shoot dead a man seen approaching their "hide" in the village of Jurf as Sakhr along the Euphrates River.
The military says that Vela shot the Iraqi man twice in the head with a 9mm pistol after he had been taken into custody.
Vela and Hensley told investigators that the man had an AK-47 with him and that he posed a threat.
But other soldiers in the platoon said that the AK-47 was planted next to the slain Iraqi after he was shot.
Hensley is also accused of killing an Iraqi man whom he alleges was noticed placing wires on a road.
"In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war, if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back," said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
Source: Agencies
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