Sic] Thomas wrote in a posting on a personal army contractor net discussion board to which he's a widespread contributor. 39 “My seven teamates and our El Salvadorian [SFODA] who fought with us are the one those who observed what happend. conflict is chronicaled and studied. Najaf is simply one other small conflict in background yet for us it was once a spot of alot of killing and demise. Its no longer a gentle dinner subject” [ sic]. forty As for the guy at the tape heard utilizing the observe “nigger,” Thomas wrote: “My Teamate who had by no means been in direct wrestle and infrequently swore could be heard creating a racial slur. this isn't his personality. Its a guy who has simply killed 17 enemy troops who had slipped to inside 70 meters of our Alamo. while my good friend stopped the development chilly, on my own and below direct hearth, the worst notice his brain may perhaps muster to yell on the lifeless bastards used to be J E R E M Y S C A H I L L 193 ‘nigger’. while he observed the video he cried. He isn’t a racist. What you pay attention is a guy terrified and effective. yet you don’t see that during the video”41 [ sic]. finally, U. S. exact Forces moved into Najaf and the gang used to be dispersed. forty two on the finish of the conflict, an unknown variety of Iraqis have been useless within the streets. in response to Corporal younger, it was once “hundreds. ” different estimates placed it at twenty to thirty lifeless with 2 hundred wounded. forty three simply because Blackwater was once guarding the construction and coordinating its safeguard, there are not any reliable army studies on how the incident all started. forty four Blackwater admitted that its males fired hundreds of thousands of rounds into the group, yet vice chairman Patrick Toohey advised the hot York occasions his males “fought and engaged each combatant with particular fireplace. ” Then, in line with the days, Toohey “insisted that his males had now not been engaged in strive against in any respect. ‘We have been undertaking a safety operation,’ he stated. ‘The line,’ he ultimately acknowledged, ‘is getting blurred. ’” on the finish of 1 of the house video clips of the Najaf conflict, Iraqis are proven loaded at the again of a truck with hoods over their heads and plastic cuffs binding their palms. one of many males seems to be crying less than his hood as he clutches his brow. What used to be transparent from the video and from Corporal Young’s reminiscences of that day was once that Blackwater used to be operating the operation, even giving orders to an active-duty U. S. Marine on whilst to open hearth. “When there are rounds firing, coming at you from down diversity, every person pulls jointly to do what has to be done,” acknowledged Blackwater’s Chris Taylor. He praised Corporal younger after listening to how the Marine resupplied the ammunition of the Blackwater contractors at the roof. “He may be pleased with the best way he acted,” Taylor stated. forty five by way of afternoon, the head U. S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and his deputy, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, had arrived at the scene. while Kimmitt later spoke concerning the conflict, he didn't point out Blackwater via identify yet praised the operation its males led. “I be aware of on a rooftop the day gone by in An Najaf, with a small crew of yankee squaddies and coalition infantrymen . . . who had simply been via approximately 3 and a part hours of strive against, I seemed of their eyes, there has been no hindrance.