Van Would Not Stop as Ordered, Seven Women and Children Killed

U.S. troops killed seven Iraqi women and children at a checkpoint Monday when the Iraqis’ van would not stop as ordered, a military official said.

Two other civilians were wounded in the incident at a U.S. Army checkpoint on a highway near Najaf in southern Iraq, the official said. The military is investigating, he said.

The dead and wounded were among 13 women and children in a van that approached the checkpoint but did not stop, the official said. Soldiers fired warning shots and then shots into the vehicle’s engine, neither of which stopped it, he said.

That’s what happens during wartime unfortunately. If the van was packed with women, children, and explosives it would have been much more tragic. Moral of the story: when you see a checkpoint, STOP.