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Fallujah killings of April 2003

The Fallujah killings of April 2003 began when United States Army soldiers from the American 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division fired into a crowd of Iraqi civilians who were protesting their presence at a school within the city of Fallujah killing 17 protestors. Human Rights Watch, which inspected the area after the incident, found no physical evidence of shots fired at the building where U.S. forces were based.[1]

Fallujah killings of April 2003

Fallujah, Iraq

April 28–30, 2003

Civilian killings

20 local residents

70+ local residents
3 U.S. Army soldiers

U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment

Soldiers claimed to be under fire by gunman in the crowd, a claim investigated inconclusively by HRW

Legacy[edit]

The incident is frequently cited and compared to other similar incidents. Foreign Policy compared Fallujah to the 2010 Israeli Gaza flotilla raid during which Israeli naval commandos used lethal force to kill nine activists, some shot when they had their backs turned to the Israeli soldiers.[5]

, a 2000 film displaying a similar incident, albeit of U.S. Marines under perceived attack from a supposedly hostile crowd

Rules of Engagement

U.S. Troops Fire on Iraqi Protesters, Leaving 15 Dead

Human Rights Watch: IV. April 28 School Protest and Shooting

Pictures of the massacre at Fallujah, Iraq 30 April 2003

Iraqi rage grows after Fallujah massacre

Violent Response: The U.S. Army in Al-Falluja