Monday - Dubai: US Navy murders an Indian fisherman off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in an act of piracy on the high seas. The US military vessel strafed the civilian boat with gunfire, murdering one fisherman and injuring a further three.
Surprised? Not really, after all using military hardware against soft civilian targets is a favourite US pastime. The US pirate vessel - USNS Rappahannock - a refuelling ship belonging to the US Fifth Fleet, stated that the fishing boat approached at high speed and ignored warnings to turn away, at which point the pirates opened fire, murdering one fisherman and injuring three others. They were taken to the port of Jebel Ali, Dubai. The survivors said that had made every attempt to avoid the Fifth Fleet vessel and that no warning was given.
In declarations to Reuters News Agency, one of the survivors, Munthu Muniraj, 28, stated "We had no warning at all from the ship, we were speeding up to try and go around them and then suddenly we got fired at... We know warning signs and sounds and there were none; it was very sudden. My friend was killed, he's gone. I don't understand what happened."
His body is pockmarked with rounds from the .50 caliber gun on the American military vessel.
Any words of regret or apology from Washington? No. Warning shots fired into the air? Let us see what two other victims said: "We were fishing and then on the way back they started shooting at us, so many shots, like a storm," (Munthu Kannan, shot in the stomach and leg); "This is not the first time for us to go out in the boat and we all know what a warning is... All I can remember is a lot of shooting." (Pandu Sanadhan).
Once again, US military personnel murdering innocent civilians.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru