Compensation Payments Rising, Especially by Marines
By DAVID S. CLOUD
New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 9 — Almost half of the more than $19 million in compensation that the American military allocated last year to compensate for killing or injuring Iraqis and damaging property came from Marine-led units in Anbar Province, Defense Department records show.
The $9.5 million in "condolence payments" by the Marines reflects the persistent fighting against insurgents in violent Anbar, but it also provides a reminder of the heavy toll that the conflict has taken on civilians, mostly from insurgents but also from American units.
The figures, contained in a detailed Defense Department report provided recently to Congress, do not include $38,000 paid to relatives of 15 Iraqis killed by marines at Haditha in November, because those deaths occurred after the end of the 2005 fiscal year on Sept. 30. That case, in which 24 Iraqi civilians were killed, is under investigation.
The total does include millions paid to residents of Falluja after the marines cleared the city in block-by-block fighting in late 2004, as well as hundreds of smaller payments — from $50 to $50,000 — broken by down by city and date.
Throughout Iraq, payments to Iraqis deemed to be noncombatants skyrocketed, going to $19.7 million in the 2005 fiscal year from about $5 million in 2004.
(There is more to the story.)
New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 9 — Almost half of the more than $19 million in compensation that the American military allocated last year to compensate for killing or injuring Iraqis and damaging property came from Marine-led units in Anbar Province, Defense Department records show.
The $9.5 million in "condolence payments" by the Marines reflects the persistent fighting against insurgents in violent Anbar, but it also provides a reminder of the heavy toll that the conflict has taken on civilians, mostly from insurgents but also from American units.
The figures, contained in a detailed Defense Department report provided recently to Congress, do not include $38,000 paid to relatives of 15 Iraqis killed by marines at Haditha in November, because those deaths occurred after the end of the 2005 fiscal year on Sept. 30. That case, in which 24 Iraqi civilians were killed, is under investigation.
The total does include millions paid to residents of Falluja after the marines cleared the city in block-by-block fighting in late 2004, as well as hundreds of smaller payments — from $50 to $50,000 — broken by down by city and date.
Throughout Iraq, payments to Iraqis deemed to be noncombatants skyrocketed, going to $19.7 million in the 2005 fiscal year from about $5 million in 2004.
(There is more to the story.)
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