| Unfortunately we don't yet have a color group for 'propaganda' ... |
US forces said Khadum was one of 11 "special group" criminals -- a term used to describe fighters armed, funded and trained by Iranians -- attempting to plant roadside bombs. His parents say he was just walking to university.
Where he attended advanced pyrotechnics studies.
| Just a simple, heavily armed student ... |
Khadum's family home, an anonymous rectangular building with an iron gate, is around a dozen metres (yards) from a wide main road, part-hidden by a large concrete wall erected in mid May by US forces to disrupt militia activities.
US forces built concrete barriers throughout Baghdad in a bid to prevent insurgents launching roadside bomb attacks on military convoys and to block militia movements. People angry at the presence of the ugly grey barrier protested and launched regular attacks against it, to bring it crashing down.
You can't tolerate ugly barriers in this pristine slum, it's against the CC&Rs.
But, according to Khadum's father, Abu Abbas, American forces hit back.
| Imagine that. I can, but Khadum couldn't ... |
| 'At dawn, I found a bloodied body on my doorstep' |
Night shift building maintenance.
"Neighbours telephoned me to say I shouldn't go out because the Americans were shooting anything that moved.
"A little later, Said Saad, a man who sold drinks, who everyone in the district knew, was also killed. Then one of my neighbours, Sabah Mahdi, had his head blown off by a bullet," Khadum's father said, as his wife wept.
"About 11 am, my son was due to go to university with his friends. With all the shooting, he told them not to come and meet him at the house, but to wait a few streets away. "He left and then a few minutes later, I was called and told he had been wounded. I raced to him. He had been shot in the back, at shoulder level. He was still breathing. He died in my arms as we took him to hospital," he said.
That evening, a US soldier went to photograph the body at the mortuary and told Abu Abbas that the teenager was shot after attempting to bring down the wall. Khadum had not been in trouble before and "was not involved in politics," his family and friends said.
He was a good boy, always helped old women cross the street.
"It is true that people used to try and knock down the wall, but they came from other districts," his father added.
Perhaps the District of Columbia?
Responding to claims his son was placing roadside bombs, Abu Abbas said Shiite militiamen "don't plant bombs on main streets in Baghdad in broad daylight."
Nope, never happens, do you think we are that dumb? Don't answer that!
That same day, May 21, saw a total of 25 people, all men, killed by American gunfire close to the Al-Obeidi wall, according to the district's residents. Cameraman Wissam Ali Ouda, who worked for private Iraqi television station Afaq, was among those killed; shot dead returning home after work. A week after the shootings, locals still avoid the building site from where locals believe the gunmen took their aim.
In Al-Obeidi, the huge concrete wall serves as a stark inescapable reminder of the bloodshed of that day.