The Haditha Massacre in the Iraq War Diary

I did a query of the Iraq War Diary for all entries on November 19, 2005 (there were 179). Among them was this entry on the Haditha massacre. It has been seriously redacted, possibly more than other entries, as it appears quite incomplete, with no explanation of how the casualties came about:

Report Key: 0A491DB1-A4BB-4983-BE25-6140DB64BF38
Date: 2005-11-19 07:30:00


I did a query of the Iraq War Diary for all entries on November 19, 2005 (there were 179). Among them was this entry on the Haditha massacre. It has been seriously redacted, possibly more than other entries, as it appears quite incomplete, with no explanation of how the casualties came about:

Report Key: 0A491DB1-A4BB-4983-BE25-6140DB64BF38
Date: 2005-11-19 07:30:00

AT 0730C , A /%%% MOUNTED PATROL WAS ATTACKED WITH AN IED IN HADITHAH IVO ( %%%). THE BLAST RESULTED IN (%%%) FKIA AND (%%%) FWIA: (%%%) URGENT AND (%%%) PRIORITY. THE (%%%) FWIA WERE MEDEVACED TO %%% AT 0809C. VEHICLE TYPE AND DAMAGE HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED.

UPDATE # %%% AT 1951C-THE IED WAS A %%% TANK WHICH WAS REMOTELY DETONATED. THE VEHICLE INVOLVED IN THE ATTACK WAS A %%% HMMWV WITH LEVEL %%% ARMOR. THE VEHICLE SUSTAINED MAJOR DAMAGE TO THE FRONT OF THE VEHICLE AND IS CONSIDERED TO BE DESTROYED. NO %%% WERE IN USE

UPDATE # -%%%-A COMBINED /%%% AND –%%% IA PATROL WAS ALSO ATTACKED WITH SAF DURING THE IED ATTACK AT THE INTERSECTION OF RT CHESTNUT AND VIPER. WHEN THE IED STRUCK THE %%% VEHICLE, SAF CAME FROM THE NORTH AND SOUTH. /%%% RETURNED FIRE AND (%%%) EKIA AND (%%%) EWIA WERE ASSESSED. (%%%) EKIA WAS FOUND TO HAVE (%%%) MAP AND () %%% IN HIS POSSESSION. THE EWIA WAS GROUND MEDEVACE%%% TO THE DAM. A GROUP OF NEUTRAL %%% PASSED AS THE PATROL WAS ATTACKED BY THE IED AND SAF FROM ENEMY ELEMENTS WITHIN RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURES. A TOTAL OF () %%% AND () %%% WERE ASSESSED AS A RESULT OF THE IED BLAST AND SAF ENGAGEMENTS AGAINST CF BY AIF. THE () %%% WERE GROUND MEDEVACE%%% TO THE DAM..

Casualty listing:

Friendly Wounded 2
Friendly Killed 1
Host Nation Wounded 0
Host Nation Killed 0
Civilian Wounded 2
Civilian Killed 15
Enemy Wounded 2
Enemy Killed 8
Enemy Detained 0

Author: Justin Podur

Author of Siegebreakers. Ecology. Environmental Science. Political Science. Anti-imperialism. Political fiction. Teach at York U's FES. Author. Writer at ZNet, TeleSUR, AlterNet, Ricochet, and the Independent Media Institute.