Episode 4: What They Saw
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Explore to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try IT at progressive dot com, progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices very based on how you buy. Previously, on in the dark, in the morning of nineteen, about two thousand, five american soldiers had executed three families.

and they come back, yeah, there was about twenty four bodies in the back of the vehicles. And i'm like holding fog, man.

Maybe a lot of this as imagination, and none of this was near bad as I seem. I'm talking about what .

actually happened .

to the civilians shot in the head on the chest.

小。

they got this way to me. They raining me commends where the hundred percent of me commence. I know they lost one of most love guys in the company, in their eyes, justified that. He, mies and your eyes, what would that be? Sounds like murder, right?

There were six marines involved in the shootings at the White car and in the houses on november nineteenth, two thousand and five in hideth. A you don't have to keep track of all them now, but I want to tell you a little bit about them. The leader of the squad was urgent.

Frank woods, rich wooden. I was from connecticut, an honorable student in a theater guy in high school. There is a picture of him in his local paper, rehearsin, a lead role for a performance of our town, who are, which had signed up for the marines when he was so Young that his parents had to cosign his enlistment papers.

He later said he chose the marines because IT was prestigious. Wooder rich was now twenty five. He never went to war before. But most of the marines we spoke with described him as a good squad leader, level headed and reserved, like he was quiet, but a good, a good dude. Then there was corporal hacked or silliness.

who was wooder rhes right hand man finites, and definitely would probably have not taken any shit over there.

One of the most junior members of the squad was private, first class and bear toe in dosa mendoza. What was .

he like? Pretty quiet. yes. Yeah, never give us our time. I did what I was solid.

Then there was corporal. Sonic delay crews. Could he, though, was his third deployment to iraq.

and love the, I can love them very good. Whatever you would talk to about IT, he would like, really intensive body is like, yeah, fucking down this and record. And i'd loved this place.

Out of all the marines involved in the shootings, the one that people remembered the most was a Lance corporal named just and share IT, the squads gunner. Share IT was a veteran of the battle of fallujah, the one who sometimes wear a patch that side punish. Er, he was just a cool guy. He was that cool guy .

that you wanted .

to hang out with. What if like to do for fun?

Oh my god, shit. Was, he was a goof ball. He was very much into the pop punk. So like the some forty one, Blake, one, eight, two, like that was his stick. He loved that stuff.

Was that one guy? If someone was having a bad day, you'd come and do up a really, really stupid. And then do you forget you're having a bad day? He had strapped like a matches to the front of himself, in the back himself, and jumped off the third story.

what? So you do stuff like that or like this contest that share chAllenge some marine bodies to one day. You from the video on shared youtube.

Go, you.

And then there was Lance corporal Stephen tam, a total linkage marine from oklahoma, also a full of veteran. We have so many people about him, and almost no one could remember a single thing which was add to me, given what I would end up learning later about tad's role in the killings winner producer rayon tongue, AR best marine named Joshua palmer.

about taking what kind of guy was he?

It's a calmer, a really, he was really trying to remember back. Give me a really.

he was .

very, he was long .

time to come up with anything. He wasn't really a dick. I like them these. Six men were all pretty different, but they would forever be connected by their actions on november nine, nine hundred th, two thousand five.

After the killings later that night, these six marines returned to their base at the school. By some accounts, the mood was summer. They just lost their friend in squad mate land's corporal magter's captain lucas meconic gathered his marines and told them to keep their heads up that they have done the right thing that day. No one seemed to ask the six marines many questions about the other people killed that day. The twenty four men, women and children .

and man .

is best I can tell. The six marines just continued their deployment life for the marines in his deeds, uh, really didn't seem to change the cut, patrolling, searching houses hanging out at the base. But then one day, three months after the killings, in february two thousand six, an army kernel showed up into death a and asked to speak to the six marines.

The kernel name was gregory. what? And he was heading the military's first investigation into what had happened in a desk. He'd been sent in after military heros saw the video with a footage that color salon received had had filled the video that suggested that something very wrong had happened. Now these six marines were being brought one by one into a room to tell kern nel what their story of what had happened on november nineteenth.

This is season three of in the dark and investigated podcast from the new york ker. This season is about the killing of twenty four men, women and children by U. S.

Marines in her death of iraq. It's a story not just about the killing themselves, but also about the failure of the U. S. Military to bring the men responsible .

for them to justice .

at the sold for what they saw. Gregory, what the man who headed the first investigation into what happened in heathrow is retired. Now, as far as I know, he's never given an interview about what the six marines told him.

I couldn't find a solid phone number for him, so I decided to just drive to his house to see if you were talked to me. All right. So on my way to interview, great, very quiet.

And I going on a little bit of a road trip. Driving to watch's house turned out to be more difficult than I expected. He lives in a really remote part of west Virginia.

So remote, my phone stopped working. I have little to no phone service. My maps were right this.

Some of the roads weren't really roads. Excuse me, man, i'm sorry about the you. I think I might be lost.

A woman walking down the street just to a hill told me to go that way. After nearly nine hours of this ha, I found IT. Hello.

hi.

hi, looking for mr. what? That's my husband. Oh, hi, i'm money is madin.

I'm a reporter and i'm doing a after all that no, he might be next week what wasn't home? Ah, okay, shoot. okay.

Can I leave my card? So yeah, and he'll sounds great. He'll give you a call, one of my least favorite phrase to hear as a reporter. That is disappointing. But a few weeks later I got a voice mile.

miss barren, this is great walk and i'm returning your call. I believe I had to do that professional currency since you attempted to track me down and pretty rural virgina. I will share with you though that um I am not a end of the new york ker or investigative journalism uh so i'm probably really not interested in your project yeah how our bride will listen to you if you want to engage me once again. Anyway, thank you.

Okay, I am going to call back hero. What who just left me a boy? Smell sounds like key doesn't like the new yorker where I work. Many doesn't like investigative reporters, which is what I am. So here we go.

Hello.

hi mr. what?

Yes, speaking.

Hi, this is matter and barn calling you back.

Hi, how are you doing the day?

good. How about you?

Good.

great. Well, I wanted to um the reason why I drove out there to talk to um is that i'm working on a project that looks at the hyda case and as part of that have been trying I wanted to talk to what about his investigation but despite being impressed by the length side gone to find him, he was, as he had promised in his voice mae, not all that .

interested again. I'm not I I don't know what to be gained by this investigative journalism. I mean, what what band ades do you want to rip off? I mean, this is pretty hurtful. In the first place, lots of people's careers were destroyed as a result of this um you know and I will tell you, you know quite Frankly, you know if others me that um americans uh either misbehaved or um no conducted themselves outside the rules of engagement potentially, but no in the long run today make a difference.

gregory, what the man who was the first to investigate this alleged war crime was telling me that none of this really matters anymore .

what he talked about instead was a whole other thing and I will tell you because this isn't the first time that um I have observed uh iraqis that uh were killed in combat uh and the family was more interested in the solution payments.

What was talking about the payments that the military made to the families of the dead, the money that coloured had collected for his relatives, twenty five hundred dollars for each person who been killed?

Their values are not the same mayors of mine mine so and I just leads that just leads to my hesitant and see you know to continue this conversation .

um but talking about like the people whose family members were killed, are you saying that they are kind of in IT for the money?

Is that you saying not at all, they're incredibly destroy, just like you or I would be if any one of our family .

members were killed .

yeah I mean, I feel like U S. Earlier are kind of like what difference does that make? I think probably IT does still make a difference in IT the deadly does still make a difference to the survivors of the the .

people who were killed that day IT may i'm not onna debate that fact with you you know, my experience needs me to believe that to occur red, two thousand and six, two thousand and seven. Now it's now twenty twenty three. I think they've moved on.

Why I do you think that?

I think is human nature.

Even even if your whole family was killed.

I believe so, especially in that region in the world.

不 提名。

They have different values than we do, okay? They're more concerned about the living and those that have passed.

I think to the i've talked .

to some of the survivors and for them, it's really important to as much as possible about how their family members were killed and then also um why no one was ever punished.

I don't have the answers to that so that .

was what on the iraqis but when what talked about the six marines who are involved in the killings, the people he was in charge of investigating, he was more sympathetic.

The Young things, they were professional, they were all, you know, they did their best to present themselves. I mean, that land, these are all Young kids. And you have to keep in mind that the context of whatever really transpired in the death was the outcome of a marine convoy being ambushed and marines being killed.

Those kids, their emotions were high, their fear was high. No original population who hasn't had to live for, Operate like that does not understand that, you know, it's just IT wars. A very complex and confusing thing.

IT was for those Young marines at day and and IT is still today. You know it's not need in clean like our general population in your readers wanted to be. And you know, Frankly, I believe I gave the marines the benefit of of the doubt, every opportunity that I could. And I mean, the court standings are the final results.

Do you think this slow cross the line?

You, my opinion doesn't matter.

yeah. I mean, did you think that a work I had been committed.

I don't have any penny on that?

As for what the six marines had actually told, what about what happened that day, what didn't want to get into that? The whole ripping off the banded thing. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to rely on what's willingness to talk about the past because I had the actual statements the marines are given to him.

All those years ago, we gotten them from one of our lawsuits against the military. There were six of these statements, one from each shooter. They were short typed up, each one signed by the marine who gave them. And these statements offered the very first accounts from the shooters themselves of what had happened that day, what they said after the break.

Hi, it's map. I'm gonna be honest with you. This season almost didn't happen, but we were able to report season three to its conclusion and bring IT to you because we join the new yorker at in the dark.

We believe that investigative reporting can lead to real change. That's why I am asking you to become a new yorker subscriber. The new york kr brings you not just in the dark, but amazing nonfiction stories from the best writers and journalists working today.

People like Rachel aviv and patrol ding key and roll in fero the new yorker, realizing subscribers, you literally make our work possible. So please go to new worker dot, come slash dark and become a subscriber. Today, a substitution starts at just a dollar a week, and that gives you unlimited access to everything. The new york are publishers, and of course, you get a tote bag that's new yorker that come slash dark.

The story that the marines told to kernel what is vague in a bit contradictory, not everyone describes things the same way. There's a lot left unresolved in the statements, perhaps in part because doesn't seem that what grill these marines all that hard, what himself even later testified that this approach was grandfatherly.

And what was that a bit of a disadvantage because he didn't have access to any of the photos that had been taken after the killings. He said he had actually been told the photos had been destroyed. But in general, the account of the six marines goes like this, what the marines told kernel, what was that? They were under attack that day.

They had to fight their way from one house to another, defined and kill the enemy. IT started when the I. D.

Exploded and killed their fellow marine, Lance corporal meal teris. Close to the site of the explosion. There was a White car on the road.

The marines had motion to the car to pull over, and IT did. But then the men inside got out. Some of the marine said the men started running, so the marines shot them.

While all that was happening, the marines were also starting to take fire, maybe from a house overlooking the road. So the squad leader, sergeant wooder rich, and several of his men headed to that house on the way. Wooder rich told them, shoot first, ask questions later.

They went into that house and heard the sounds of A K forty seven racket. And the marines opened fire on insurgents inside. Someone ran out of the house, so the marines chased him to another house, but the marines were taking fire from that house.

Two, some of them went inside. One marines told what he was dusty in there, hard to see. They shot more people than left. And then, according to one of the marines, some of the men went back to the first house. They thought they didn't finished clearing at the first time.

They went inside and throw a gade and fired into one of the rooms, saw the bodies of dead and surgeons lying on the ground. Then a break, the marines went on a rooftop to survey the area, a moment of relative quiet. But then, according to one of the marines, they started getting fired on again, this time from yet another house.

Some of them ran over to check IT out. They went inside a house. And we're confronted by four insurgents. One of the insurgents was pointing in eight forty seven, right at the a marine fired at the insurgents and killed them all.

So much combat, so many dead insurgents, what none of the marines mentioned in any of their statements to kernel, what was shooting women or children. Instead, what they described sounded like an epic fight, a multi hour battle against insurgents who are attacking them at nearly every turn. That's what the marine said happened corner.

What did recommend that the military bring criminal investigators to look into the incident further? Andy recommended that the marines gets some more training, but he seemed to mostly accept what the marines were telling him. And this version of events might have been the only version that anyone ever heard, except for one very important fact, something I haven't mentioned yet.

The marines weren't .

the only ones who could describe what happened that day. There were witnesses.

I want to go back to color someone receive, on the day after the killings, he is brought the bodies of his family back home and buried them, fifteen people from his family alone, but two people are missing, colonise in mine and his nephew up to rock mn. Two of his sister asthmas kids.

I ask myself, what is in? What is that?

What is they collide, figured their bodies have been destroyed in a fire that I started in others s house that day.

Uh, we thought, h uh, a man after a human is there is snow um but is because they uh but .

thought they were dead.

Yes yes. We thought that the family .

brought the dead back from the hospital and buried them afterward. In college, in his family were gathered to morn, a man came up to him. The man said that he been arrested by the marines the day of the killings while he was being held at the base. He heard two children, a boy and a girl.

two kids.

and they cry, crying as they were loaded onto an american helicopter. And where you thinking at that point.

maybe those children .

are Spark that they they were the children were still alive. IT was like a Spark of hope. Came back .

to the family he had to go .

to see of the children is really a man and human. I took off running to the american base. When he got there, he found in a rocky guard posted on the rooftop, collared.

called up to him, hey, hey, can I talk with you? He said, no, go, go. And I told him, please can I talk with anyone from american? I am from the families they killed yesterday. Please can you receive someone to took him an american marine.

and his iraqi interpreter came down to speak with collared. The marine was major dina hide, the civil affairs officer for the battle on the guy whose job IT was to win over iraqi hearts and minds. College said this was actually the first time the two of them had met.

And I told them, I am hardly, I am. I in about from city council.

I'm a lawyer. I'm a member of the city council.

Uh, major hai said, oh, city council, where are you? Why you don't working? I don't please. I don't coming to discuss this for you.

Color said to hide. Forget about the council. I'm here to talk about something else.

I am coming to asking. When the american forces killed my families, we lose two kids.

Two kids called, told tiet, a girl and a boy.

He said, yes, they injured. Yes, I had said those .

were the kids that have been at the base. They've been injured in the attack and flown out to a hospital in baghdad for treatment, but they were alive. The children's aat, who lived in baghdad, went to the hospital and found both kids there.

Their relatives brought them back to his deeds a, and they reunited with what was left with their family. Outdoor rock man and a man weren't the only people who survived the killings inside the houses that day. There were three others, five survivors in total, one of whom was just a baby.

These people were survivors of a tragedy, but they were also something else. They were eyewitnesses. They've seen their family, their parents, their brothers and sisters shot to death. They'd seen what the marines had done. I had no idea if they would want to talk about what happened, but I figured the least I could do was asked.

I wanted to go to a deaf and myself to try to talk to the survivors, but when we consulted with security experts, they said IT would be too risky because an american woman traveling on the long road to header tha would be at a high risk of kidnapping. And even getting to hide, tho was difficult and required expertise. So we knew we would need to send someone else, someone who could travel there more safely, someone with experience navigating the roads and handling the security situation in iraq.

Hello.

hi. Great to see you and much. Can you hear? Yeah, can you hear us? okay. Yes, his name is nmc.

Hush now. yes. So is neck snow is A K, you can try. Producer is a documentary film.

Ker with A B, B, C. He was born in cartesian, but he lives in london.

Now i'm kurdish, but i'm from iraq. So for me, i'm iraqi. Even though I love britain, I see myself as a guest here. So I always think of going back. I first heard .

of in a mac when I watched incredibly beautiful documentary he made called iraq, a state of mind. It's about how a rockies are struggling to deal with the trauma of years of war. If we are going to try to talk to people who would witness some of the worst violence imaginable, the death of their own parents, I wanted to be sure that the person we worked with had experiences with those kinds of situations.

And the arc definitely did when I explained the story to the mark, to see if he was interested. The fact that so much time has passed, nobody y's talked about this. They have right away. He was on board.

I mean, that could be interesting investigation bit for us to go and find out what is, you know, I always think that this could have been me. What if this was my brother or my sister or somebody also? So do I. I see IT is that even though I have never met, those people are very well connected to them.

Gathered a small crew, and in march of twenty twenty two, he got on the plane and flea bag dad on his way to try to interview the survivors.

We have just arrived in that airports. It's quarter to nine local.

He was picked up outside the airport by a security advisor.

At a team meeting the next morning, they went over the plan .

to drive to his idea OK. So team brief.

everybody's here because a .

lot of smoke .

in the four of you guys smoking, it's a little often doing the old ten a final or something. So the first thing I want to tell you is that my mother said, you do not let me get killed.

So what do you expect?

What are the threats? The security .

advice reviews the threats.

right? So sleeping cells, sleep cells, mali tia and the ISIS.

the ie ds.

road side ids, the motors are rockets.

So if you can, you keep us safe of all this.

Of because.

of course, great. We've going to leave IT here. So in china, tomorrow we will make our way the .

next day. The moon is crew, the security adviser to drivers, a sound guy. And because the max's native language is actually kurdish, an interpreter named hyder OK.

md.

All set out. We are on our way to Editha.

The road from baghdad to hideth a is long. He passes through towns still scarred by years of war.

So fifteen, twenty years ago, we passed for a, and now we are in romantic, and the the houses are still damaged.

Different sections of the road are controlled by different militias. And you need a military escort to move from sector to sector.

We've been escorted by a ministry, pick up to gentleman checkpoints .

everywhere checked.

Number five, six. I don't want to look. B B C. b.

At one shot point, the guards singled out the mac for questioning.

The, they only asked me, why not you guys?

What only me.

hair and style.

Hair, your long hair, so you look like not from .

here after that, for the rest of the drive. No mac war I have.

We have to do what they say. And hopefully we will arrive if and I did that soon.

Finally, after more than eight hours, the margin's team reached to do them. You can't just drive into his death. A the entrance to the city is controlled predictably by a checkpoint.

There are soldiers with machine guns and guards with bomb snifty dogs checking cars for explosives. This tight security is a hold over from the years when he did. He was trying to keep out insurgents in, later trying to keep out ice back in twenty fourteen years after the marines had left, icon swept through the region.

The group took over almost all of Amber province, but not to defer he deef. The residents fought back. They killed any asist members they could find in the city.

They essentially walled her deef the off. They did trenches around the perimeter and blocked the roads to get into the city. You had to be escorted in trusted resident of edesa who could vouch for you. And that's still the case today.

Help out the checkpoint. Uh, we waiting as we need to make a reference.

So the mark in his team are waiting at the checkpoint for the person who would be vouching for that. That person was college, so on, receive .

color.

showed up as he always did wearing a suit. Mock later told me when he first met collared, he felt kind of silly because he was so just showed from the long drive called.

was so put together.

College drove marc .

around town is a beautiful district. A lot of pantries is is famous for punches this space.

Yes, yes, yes.

shows him her dea good.

took him to .

his house, introduced him to his family. What's your name? 我 cos。

They very thank you for for the tea and how he took the mock to .

see the mayor who got worked up talking about .

the killings.

Think if the other way around, what would have an iraqi soldier killed twenty four americans, what would have .

happened and we would be nuked at the mayor .

had in a love .

wake from the face of the earth .

color good, I hope no. Ah I know what you mean. Well, that tells the story. I'm afraid that, sorry.

now, that was in a death for over a week. During that time, collared was busy talking to his family, trying to arrange interviews with them. One day, when collared and democrat .

talking color got a phone call.

Okay, okay, are you? Sorry, IT is a illness. IT was from one .

of the survivors.

What does he say?

SHE told me SHE was ready .

to talk. And another survivor was too.

These two people who agreed to talk with children at the time of the killings. Now they were adults, adults who wanted to tell their stories for one very specific reason to try to get justice, justice for their dead parents, for their dead brothers and sisters, ants and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. Their stories after the break.

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The two survivors, the max spoke too while he was in hyde's a are named abd rock man will lead and suffer unus up to rock mon is collared neck, the sound of collared sister osm a. He's one of the children who have been injured in the attack and helicopter to bag dad up to rock. Man was just six years old when his family was killed.

He's now twenty five and in college studying computer engineering. Sofa is also a relative of collage software. Was eleven at the time of the killings. Today two thirty.

I don't know, I don't like, how can SHE said, like the reason .

I came to hear to to do that interview.

to get the truth out and to .

reopen the the case again.

他的 I I have to get the justice .

is everything， and I don't need my, my, my blood going for nothing.

Back before the killings, sopha and abroad, rock man live close to each other almost next door, just about a hundred meters away from where the I, E, D. Would later go off.

Best said, he said.

Normal life is full of happiness, full of love.

Their families were their whole words. They had brothers and sisters and grandparents who lived with them. San, outdoor, rockland, s parents try to shelter their children from the war.

Most of the time, they try to keep them inside the house, and they told them to stay away from the marines and suffer, did exactly that. He was scared of the marines and the big weapons they Carried. And SHE did go out .

to stay close to her father. He said, I feel fair.

but when I was beside my, my father's different, I feel so safe.

but I do. Rock man would sometimes sneak out with his Younger brother so they could find the marines, get Candy from them.

the mother of catching them, ordering .

them back inside.

After rock, man doesn't remember much about his family anymore. He was just six when they were killed. He remembers his father taking him to the mask on friday is for prayer. He is a fate memory of his mother's cooking, of the taste of burial. I .

and.

Outdoor rock man and suit don't often talk about what happened on the day of the killings, but they have talked about IT before a long time ago, in two thousand six. In the months after their family members were killed, they were both interviewed by investigators with the U. S.

military. They later gave their positions. Those interviews were difficult, but the family felt that they are necessary for the military to have the evidence they needed to prosecute the marines.

I have transcripts and summaries of their interviews and statements from back that I also have statements from two thousand six from two other members of abdominal family who also survived the killings and who declined to be interviewed. One of them was an adult at the time. I say all of this because i'm not just relying on these two interviews years later with people who are children at the time for an account of what happened. Memory, of course, is slippery. But what Sophia and update rock on are about to say is supported not only by their own statements at the time, but also by the statements of the other survivors.

Do you remember the day?

Can you tell .

us about this if it's okay with you?

The story they're about to tell start was .

six year old of rock man sound asleep on the morning of the killings. He was at home with his family. There were eleven of them at the house that day.

his parents, his siblings, his .

grandparents, an ant and two uncles. When all of .

a sudden did you .

hear the explosion.

what was .

the .

sound .

like followed .

by gunfire is .

the fire street. The guns on the main sea treat .

the I D had exploded near outdoor rock man's family's house and killed a marine land corporal to assis. The marines had then opened fire on five people who gotten out of a White car and killed all of them. And now a small group of marines, like by the squad leader, sargeant Frank witter age, was heading to her outdoor rock man's house.

Outdoor rock man's father was in a room in the front of the house. When suddenly there was a loud noise at the door, sergeant woodward and his marines had arrived. What, uh, man described about what happened next was not at all have the marines had made IT seem in their statements to coronal what this was.

Not a gunfight with insurgents, not a vicious battle, was shooting back and forth after rahma described only one group of people shooting the marines. He said there were no insurgents. Inside his house was just his family.

The marines busted .

down. The door of the .

house came side rock. Man couldn't see them.

He was in another room, but he heard gunshots. Then the gunn fire stopped and the house was quiet. The marines had left. Up to rock man and some of his family members waited a little while. Then they went to see what had happened.

Rock man found his father in .

the front room lying in a pool of blood. His father had .

been shot to death. Shoes.

he said, was grown up to .

rock men's grandmother .

was also lying dead nearby in the hallway. Two of abdou rock man's relatives, his ann hiba and uncle retied, decided to make a run for IT his and took his baby sister with her. His aunt survived, later gave a statement about all this, but his uncle was later shot to death by marines.

Outside, everyone else was gathered in living room. There were six of them in there, abd rock man, his mother asthma, his eight year old sister in mind, his four year old brother adella, his other uncle and his grandfather up rock man and his sister. We're sitting on the floor, the living room near their mother and four year old brother abdulla.

The uncle was near them too, after rock mine remembers their grandfather lying on a bed. Then all of the sudden, the marines were back. From his position in the corner, huddled nearest mother and siblings, alter rock man saw marines enter the living room and begin to shoot.

They shot at his grandfather as he lay in bed. One of the marines threw a grenade and IT exploded. One of the grandfather's legs blessed off his body from the force of the explosion. Just a note here, another survivor of the killing of rock mas, and or calls the marines killing the grandfather earlier when they were in the house the first time.

How did the marine .

seem to be? So they are .

angry and try. They want just to shoot.

What happened in the next few minutes inside this room is something outdoor rock on no longer remembers clearly, maybe never did even a statements from back that our vae. He remembers his mother, asthma, his four year old brother adella, being in the room near him, but asked for what happened next. He can say for sure, at some point he felt a .

warm sensation.

He'd .

been hit hot.

But have outdoor recommends medical records. They say he had a gunshot wound to his back. Eventually the marines left.

Up to rock man called out for his family, for his mother, his brother, his uncle, his grandfather, none of .

them answered.

Then his eight year old sister, a man .

responded.

he said less, I call her in and he answered me, but he could, couldn't move because her leg was a man had also been .

hit baby by trapper nel from the grenade abdo rock ma and his sister stayed together on the floor in the corner, bleeding next to their dad, mom and brother. After the marines left up to rock man's house, they headed to a house nearby. That's where eleven year old suffer.

Uni slive SHE was at home with her family that morning when the I. E. D exploded outside.

There were nine of them in the house together that day. Sophia, her parents, her five siblings and her ant sofas mother was in bed recovering from surgery. SHE just had her, her panics removed. All the sudden, soft.

heard a knock at the door after her mother, her aunt and her siblings .

were all in the bedroom. At the back of the house.

her father went to .

answer the .

door to from where .

suffer. The rest of her family were in the back bedroom. They get your sounds, but IT wasn't clear what was happening.

Then a marine appeared .

in the doorway of the bedroom, the bedroom where sofa was with her mother, her aunt and her siblings, her sisters at just fifteen, ten, five and three, and her brother mohammed, age eight. The marine was holding a grenade.

And how IT he looked at sofa .

in her family, I didn't say a word.

said liba. Then he threw .

the gade inside the room, closed the door and left. The bedroom was small and safe, and her family were obviously terrified. Hat told them, come on.

come here. Got them .

all to move as far away .

from the grenade as go.

go. Stay away from IT. From what that thinks the Green. Stay away from the Green.

Most of surface siblings huddled together on the bed with their mom on .

top of a blanket. And you can I tell first, I is a way.

So SHE SHE are gathered all .

of us on the bed.

but the grenade never went off.

After a little while, they couldn't .

hear the marines anymore.

The saw his .

father, lying dad on the floor.

started screaming more, and then marine .

appeared in the door way again. The marine didn't .

say anything up and not.

He just held up his gun and started shooting. There is a space between the bed in the wall and sofa in her older sister, nor quickly wedge themselves into that space to hide while suffer in, nor were hiding. They could hear gunshots. They seem to be non stop, but from hiding spot .

couldn't see much what was happening, and sf, and nor tried .

to be as still as possible. But ofa said SHE assumes the marines must have figured out where they were hiding, because at one point a marine lowered his gun aimed at under the bed and started firing.

Were under.

he get his wife debt and start shooting at us when we are under bed and start shooting to me unknown.

the shots miss suffer. And then the shooting stopped and the room went quiet.

Self returned to her sister, nor the one she's been hiding with to tell her to come out. They've gone, nor didn't respond. Suffer, reached over, touched her hand to north head. Get up. Get up.

And then suffer, realized her hand was covered in blood, nor had been shot in the head.

Fy, people behind I want to have.

So I got up and looked at the bed, the bed where her mom and her other siblings had been huddled together. SHE saw her ten year old sister saba dead. Suba was covered in the blood of her other sister. Five year old zenobe was also dead.

We to the head title of a friday higher li mother suffer.

could tell that her Youngest sister aischa, who was just three, was also dead, but he couldn't .

see her face after looked at .

her mother, SHE was lying dead on her back, shot in the head, her dead children .

lying all around her at the them to survive.

suffer, looked across the room, saw her apt, shot dead on the floor, then suffer er, heard a scream. IT was her eight year old brother mohamed sofa saw that his hands had been shot.

He lost his fingers, tried to stop .

her brother from bleeding. Her mother had a towel and her stomach from a recent surgery sofa grab the towel.

tried a rapid around .

her brothers and wounds money. Then .

he fainted.

when. Sa woke up.

he was confused, SHE said. SHE didn't know where to go or what to do, or what time IT was. The room was now completely quiet. Her brother muhammed was later found dead on the bed, crawled up next to his mom sofa, got up and walked out of her house on her way out. SHE passed .

her father's body next to the kitchen door.

SHE walked to her uncle, a scene house SHE was covered in blood. SHE told him the americans killed everyone. Saffron abu rock mann has had to grow up without parents.

Abdallahi also lost his brother and sofa, lost all of her siblings. SHE was the only one who survived in her entire family office, said. In those early days, SHE couldn't imagine what her life would be like without her mom and dad, her brother and sisters.

After her family was killed, SHE moved in with her grandparents. SHE said they took a care of her. He was eventually able to build a life of her own. SHE got married and now has .

her own family. Aba rock .

man was raised by his uncles, democrat. If he had any objects from his family that would help them remember them, no. Abd rock man said nothing. The mark tried to ask outdoor orkan about how the killings of his family affected his life. After rock, mn declined to answer the question.

After the marines left saffed house, they still weren't done. They search a few empty houses. They went up on a rooftop for a while, and then they went into one last house.

The story of that house, next time on in the dark. If you want to listen to episode five right now, add free. You can do that by subscribing to the new yorker.

Subscribers will get all of our remaining episodes add free a week early. Go to new yorker dot com slash dark to subscribe and listen now. In the dark is reported and produced by me model in managing producer samara free mark, producers nato liza ban, ski and rayman tongue a car and reporter Parker esco. In the dark is edited by Katherine winter and willing, David's son, reporting and investigating in iraq by BBC ara bics and mock hush and field producer hyder ocmi, additional interpreting and translation by iah alcar g. This episode is factor by Lucy cropping and lena feldman, original music by alison laden Brown, additional music by Crystal in and Jenny and seventh sound design and mixed by jona lw.

Our theme is by gary master, our art is by a millionaire anzy art direction by Nicholas conrad and a viva Michael love foil legal representation from the foia team at loveland lovie legal review by for bio tony in the dark was created by american public media and is produced by the new yorker, 而 managing editor is Julia rough child。 The head of global audio for ky asked, is Christmas ic. The editor of the new yorker is David remnick. You have comments or story tips. You can send them to us at in the dark at new york ker dot com and make sure to follow in the dark whatever you get your podcast.

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