This Photo Does Not Show Iraqis Killed By America
The Claim
This is what America did in Iraq. "Jumping over corpses." A young Iraqi boy jumps over courses out of fear in Iraq in 2003. The genocide in Gaza has brought up memory of the savagery in Iraq, when 1 million + civilians were slain during an unjust war. A war that capitalised on lies of "weapons of mass destruction" and myths of boogiemen. Just imagine if we had social media then?
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Emerging story
Recently, social media users have widely shared a photo of a boy jumping over a hundred corpses alleging that these corpses were Iraris killed by America.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated the widely shared claim and found it to be misleading.
Corpses Of The Dujail Massacre In Iraq
Following a reverse Google image search, Misbar’s team found that the photo dates back to May 2003.
The photo can be found on Getty Images and its copyrights go to the award-winning photographer Marco Di Lauro.
According to the Getty Images description, the photo was taken in Al Musayyib, Iraq. It depicts a child jumping over a line of remains in a school that has been brought from a mass grave discovered in the desert on the outskirts of Al Musayyib.
The bodies are believed to belong to Shi’ite Muslims executed by Saddam Hussein’s regime after their uprising following the 1991 Gulf War.
Misused Photo By The Media
The image in question has been misused many times by news media outlets and social media users in the past.
The Bangladesh Post used the photo in an article about the death toll in Syria in the period between 2011 to 2019.
The Iranian American Forum also misused the photo in the context of reporting on the killed in Syria.
However, the photo has no relation to the victims in Syria as it was originally taken several years before the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011.
The Dujail Massacre In Iraq
Residents of Dujail, a largely Shiite town in Iraq, were tortured and murdered in a horrible massacre done under Saddam Hussien’s regime in 1982.
In that year, Saddam was facing Iranians on his territory, and as he was taking losses, he was faced with the disloyalty of Shiites.
In a convoy of many cars organized to mark Saddam’s presence, members of a militant Shiite group, Dawa, ambushed him, opening fire upon Saddam’s entourage.
As a retaliation, Saddam destroyed the whole village. The executions are thought to have taken place outside the village.
Eight families have been executed back then, consisting of 612 Iraqis. Approximately 75 thousand dunams of agricultural area have been removed, The Dujail River was buried as a result too.
The U.S. Agreed To Withdraw Forces From Iraq
By September 2025, the U.S. would finally withdraw hundreds of its troops from Iraq according to the latest understanding reached by the United States and Iraq.
The remainder of the troops would depart by the end of 2026. A senior U.S. official described the step as an agreement but its execution is still a matter of time.
However, some of the U.S. troops may remain in Iraq even after the drawdown as the U.S. and Iraq are currently seeking to establish a new advisory relationship.
The official announcement was scheduled for weeks ago and postponed because of the Gaza war. Last September, several sources said that the deal could be announced during the month, however, it seems to be also postponed because of the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon currently.
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