Posted on: Friday, May 20, 2005

Army probing Iraq girl's death

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Army has opened a criminal investigation into a Feb. 18, 2004, shooting involving two Schofield Barracks soldiers in which a 14-year-old Iraqi girl was killed.

Christopher Grey, head of public affairs for the Army Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., has confirmed that investigators are looking into the death of 14-year-old Intisar Saleh, who was shot along with her sister and mother as they fled the scene of a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy.

Saleh's mother, Shaha, lost a leg in the shooting, and her 15-year-old sister, Samira, was shot through the thigh. Intisar died from gunshot wounds to the head and stomach.

"I cannot reveal what led us to the investigation," said Grey in a telephone interview from Virginia. "All I can confirm is that the investigation is open and ongoing."

Sgt. Jeffrey Waruch and Sgt. Steven Sands of the 1-27 Infantry Battalion, 25th Infantry (Light) Division, have been named as the gunmen in the initial inquiry into the shooting, according to the documents produced by the investigation.

According to the document, after the roadside bomb detonated, Waruch and Sands fired warning shots at two groups of fleeing civilians after verbal commands and hand signals failed to stop them.

Waruch then instructed Sands to take only aimed shots.

Waruch continued to fire on his group, and according to the document, he wounded two individuals and killed a third after he saw them stop and raise a tube-like object, believed to be a rocket-propelled grenade.

Waruch and Sands initially were cleared during a commander's inquiry into the shooting conducted shortly after the incident. The investigating officer determined that Waruch "thought he was about to be fired on."

Grey said that the initial inquiry, known as a 15-6 investigation, has not been re-opened. He said the Army Criminal Investigation Command conducts felony-level investigations separately from the unit commanders to prevent command influence. Grey said the shooting incident is under investigation and did not name Waruch or Sands as targets.

Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson, commander of the 25th Infantry (Light) Division, said he recalls the initial inquiry into the incident but was not aware that a separate criminal case had been opened.

"If that case has been re-opened, I am sure there will be an appropriate further investigation that takes place," the general said on May 10. "Whenever there is an incident that involves the killing of a noncombatant, it is investigated thoroughly."

On the day of the incident, soldiers from the 25th were en route to a meeting with tribal leaders, accompanied by remnants of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which was leaving Iraq after a year in the north. A bomb exploded near their convoy at 10:30 a.m., according to the military. In the chaos after the blast, soldiers chased the women and shot them after they failed to heed warnings to stop. No soldiers were injured.

Waruch and Sands, who was a corporal at the time, were in the convoy.

"The soldiers perceived the women were a threat based on their evasive action," said Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a spokesman for the military in northern Iraq at the time of the shooting. Cargie added that "it doesn't look like the women were involved" in the bombing.

The soldiers chased what they described as three women, and fired on the group when they saw what they believed to be a rocket-propelled grenade, according to the Army.

Waruch was present during another shooting of an unarmed Iraqi male civilian on Feb. 28 2004, 10 days after he fired on the three women.

He later acted as the government's key witness against another Schofield soldier, Pfc. Edward Richmond, who was convicted of shooting the unarmed man.

Waruch was the only other soldier with Richmond in an open field on Feb. 28, 2004, when Richmond shot an Iraqi cowherder in the back of the head while Waruch struggled to handcuff the man.

In August 2004, Richmond was convicted of voluntary man-slaughter by a court-martial, sentenced to three years in jail and was dishonorably discharged.

He is serving time in a military stockade at Fort Sill, Okla.

The Knight Ridder News Service contributed reporting from Iraq. Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.