Does Personal Video Show US Troops Killing Unarmed Iraqi Civilians?

A short, two minute video recorded by one of a group of US soldiers in Iraq is under question by some. In the video the soldiers appear to be firing their weapons into an empty street. When two white cars drive through the street the soldiers not only shoot and kill those in the cars, they do so with joyfully.

The video, found here online at the Information Clearing House, records the soldiers firing their weapons, reloading and firing again. Before them is what appears to be an empty street and a single, dark colored vehicle parked infront of an empty building. In the background you can hear the soldiers shouting happily at each other. The soldiers shout "Yeah baby!" and "Yeah b**ch, get that f**ker up!", as they fire and reload, then continue firing onto the seemingly empty scene from what appears to be a rooftop that they are stationed on. From the video it is difficult to tell if there are any people below them or if there is any incoming gunfire happening.

Nearly a third way into the short video two white cars are seen driving down the street. Again it is difficult to tell if there is any gunfire coming from the vehicles, or even if there is any malicious intent from those in the vehicles. The US soldiers continue firing, and recording the situation. One of the cars attempts to turn down a side road away from the street while the other crashes into the parked vehicle that the soldiers were originally firing into. Men quickly escape the vehicles and attempt to flee, only to be shot and killed by the soldiers. After more gunfire from the soldiers a cease fire order is finally issued and the shooting stops. For the last few seconds of the video we over hear the soldiers bragging to each other about what they shot and who they shot at. The video zooms in on the dead bodies lying in the road while in the background one soldier exclaims 'Look dude, we f**ked those people all to sh** down there."

The Information Clearing House (http://www.ichblog.eu/), a site that hosts assorted articles about the US government is hosting this video on their site and calling to people to forward the video on to more mainstream media outlets. Above the video titles such as "Bush brings his brand of compassionate conservatism to Iraq", "Another proud day in U.S. military history", and "Witness to a war crime" it is easy to see how the site's owners feel about this video. Though the video is not widely known about yet, some wonder if the political spin by the Information Clearing House could be making viewers see something much darker in the video than what is really there.

War crimes by US soldiers is not at all new during this current war. US jets dropped firebombs during a military drive in 2003. US soldiers tortured and photographed Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. And in 2005 US Marines gunned down five unarmed Iraqis who came upon the scene of a roadside bombing in Haditha Iraq. Some people who view the footage feel that this video is just another example of US soldiers behaving recklessly.