Someone tell me what's going on in this picture.

[Queeb Salaron]

[Darth Garden Gnome]

Looks like a couple of guys in a pit surrendering. But they look...well...dead. All slumped over and stuff...anyoen really know whats happening?

[TrailerParkJawa]

Two British soldiers or marines are looking at two dead Iraqi's in a hole. They have a white flag.

Possibility 1: They wanted to surrender and were killed in the confusion.
Possibility 2: They wanted to surrender and were killed anyway.
Possibility 3: They pretended to surrender and were killed.
Possibility 4: They wanted to surrender and were killed by their own side.

[irishmick79]

Looks like a couple of marines discovering some dead iraqis. What's the deal?

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Iraqi troops during their finest hour?

Seriously, what did wherever you got it from (In properties, it says MSNBC.com) say about it?

[RogueIce]

Two guys trying to surrender but who didn't quite make it?

Isn't there a story that goes on with this picture? Because all anyone can tell from it alone is two dead guys with a white flag in their trench with two soldiers standing nearby and a bunch of junk strewn about.

[Stormbringer]

Any number of possiblities. False surrender, mistakenly killed, killed by Iraqi Feydayin. I'd suggest you actually look at the story it's attached to.

I know what you're suggesting and it's bullshit.

[Queeb Salaron]

Two British soldiers or marines are looking at two dead Iraqi's in a hole. They have a white flag.

Possibility 1: They wanted to surrender and were killed in the confusion.
Possibility 2: They wanted to surrender and were killed anyway.
Possibility 3: They pretended to surrender and were killed.
Possibility 4: They wanted to surrender and were killed by their own side.

Well, it looked to me as though there were some sort of big explosion. The flesh of the soldiers is charred and their heads are all but nonexistant. They appear to be unarmed, but who knows what kinds of munitions are in that foxhole. But I think this is the first time ground-forces ever saw these two Iraqi soldiers. I should think that because their skulls are literally no longer solid, there was some kind of Air-to-Ground munition that went off, blanketed the ground in fire, flew over the top of the foxhole and literally char-broiled their heads.

I guess that's the problem with air assaults: You don't give the enemy a chance to surrender.

[Queeb Salaron]

Iraqi troops during their finest hour?

Seriously, what did wherever you got it from (In properties, it says MSNBC.com) say about it?

Damage assessment
British soldiers survey damage at an Iraqi position March 22 as the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers lay in a trench next to a white flag after the British assault on the Al-Faw peninsula in southern Iraq.

[Queeb Salaron]

Any number of possiblities. False surrender, mistakenly killed, killed by Iraqi Feydayin. I'd suggest you actually look at the story it's attached to.

I know what you're suggesting and it's bullshit.

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm asking what's going on. Yeah, I have my theories... But the picture just struck me as odd, that's all.

As for reading the story attached to it, there isn't much of one. Just a description of the picture.

[fgalkin]

Iraqi troops during their finest hour?

Seriously, what did wherever you got it from (In properties, it says MSNBC.com) say about it?

Damage assessment
British soldiers survey damage at an Iraqi position March 22 as the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers lay in a trench next to a white flag after the British assault on the Al-Faw peninsula in southern Iraq.

Link, please.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Vympel]

Iraqi troops during their finest hour?

I think some of the Iraqis are doing very well- take the ATGMs that knocked out a pair of Abrams, fired from technicals- balls of steel.

[Stormbringer]

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm asking what's going on. Yeah, I have my theories... But the picture just struck me as odd, that's all.

So post those theories because I'd like to hear them. Especially since you seem to be implying what I think you're implying.

[RogueIce]

Damage assessment
British soldiers survey damage at an Iraqi position March 22 as the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers lay in a trench next to a white flag after the British assault on the Al-Faw peninsula in southern Iraq.

Link, please.

From an MSNBC Slide Show

And if that doesn't work...Click Here... It's in the March 22nd one.

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

Forensics 101.
Look at the way the white flag is under the pole. The pole is under the dead soldier. This tends to indicate that the force striking the dead came from behind them. Had the dead bean blasted from the front, the flag pole would not be so ontact and placed where it is. Any blast powerful enough to fry the dead's faces, would damage the flag, which apears to be unburned.
Shrapnel, from the front, killing the 2 would do the same thing, if they fell forward.

My preliminary GUESS, based ONLY on the one photo, is:
Shrapnel, from unknown direction, causing head/neck wound fatality, with low kinetic slam, (pucture/pierce, not wham) soldiers slump forward.

Blast or bullets, from behind. The unburned nature of the flag, seems to rule out blast.

In short, no DEFINATIVE conclusion POSSIBLE, due to limited data.

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

Anything hot enough to scorch your face, will discolor the white cotton/ polyester cloth.

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

Apon further examination I feel it safe to rule out scorchig blast. There is blood soaked into the dirt where the dead's faces are touching it, and scorched wound do NOT bleed.
Shrapnel, or concussive death.

[jegs2]

Apon further examination I feel it safe to rule out scorchig blast. There is blood soaked into the dirt where the dead's faces are touching it, and scorched wound do NOT bleed.
Shrapnel, or concussive death.

Not to mention the fact that a much more flammible white flag is unscorched...

[irishmick79]

Forensics 101.
Look at the way the white flag is under the pole. The pole is under the dead soldier. This tends to indicate that the force striking the dead came from behind them. Had the dead bean blasted from the front, the flag pole would not be so ontact and placed where it is. Any blast powerful enough to fry the dead's faces, would damage the flag, which apears to be unburned.
Shrapnel, from the front, killing the 2 would do the same thing, if they fell forward.

My preliminary GUESS, based ONLY on the one photo, is:
Shrapnel, from unknown direction, causing head/neck wound fatality, with low kinetic slam, (pucture/pierce, not wham) soldiers slump forward.

Blast or bullets, from behind. The unburned nature of the flag, seems to rule out blast.

In short, no DEFINATIVE conclusion POSSIBLE, due to limited data.

Another possibility - Iraqi troops, having been engaged with US marines from this position, decided it was prudent to surrender, either in a true effort to lay down arms or in an effort to lure marines into a trap. Marines acquire the individuals with automatic weapons as they raise the white flags and bring their heads out over the trench, but something happens that prompts Marines to open fire. Accurate small arms fire causes head and neck wounds visible, and kills the iraqi soldiers present.

[Montcalm]

Two possibilities: no1 they were killed by a RP assholes no2 they faked surrendering and when the soldiers aproached they pulled out a gun

[Master of Ossus]

Forensics 101.
Look at the way the white flag is under the pole. The pole is under the dead soldier. This tends to indicate that the force striking the dead came from behind them. Had the dead bean blasted from the front, the flag pole would not be so ontact and placed where it is. Any blast powerful enough to fry the dead's faces, would damage the flag, which apears to be unburned.
Shrapnel, from the front, killing the 2 would do the same thing, if they fell forward.

My preliminary GUESS, based ONLY on the one photo, is:
Shrapnel, from unknown direction, causing head/neck wound fatality, with low kinetic slam, (pucture/pierce, not wham) soldiers slump forward.

Blast or bullets, from behind. The unburned nature of the flag, seems to rule out blast.

In short, no DEFINATIVE conclusion POSSIBLE, due to limited data.

Actually, to me it appears that whatever killed them came from the front, and was an explosion of some kind. Examine more carefully the manner in which the two fell, which is consistent with the soldier on the right's having been blown backwards, striking his head on the edge of his entrenchment, before slumping forward into the position we may now observe. This is confirmed by what appears to be blood on the sand behind him, and is further supported by the placement of his helmet, filled with some kind of detritus from the blast, which appears in the foreground of the picture. I conclude that they were hit by either an airstrike or artillery while attempting to surrender, and were then discovered by British soldiers. Their deaths were the result of shrapnel/concussive force created by a large explosion in front of them.

[RogueIce]

Actually, to me it appears that whatever killed them came from the front, and was an explosion of some kind. Examine more carefully the manner in which the two fell, which is consistent with the soldier on the right's having been blown backwards, striking his head on the edge of his entrenchment, before slumping forward into the position we may now observe. This is confirmed by what appears to be blood on the sand behind him, and is further supported by the placement of his helmet, filled with some kind of detritus from the blast, which appears in the foreground of the picture. I conclude that they were hit by either an airstrike or artillery while attempting to surrender, and were then discovered by British soldiers. Their deaths were the result of shrapnel/concussive force created by a large explosion in front of them.

Actually, what about what's between the two dead soldiers? That looks like it could be a helmet to me, and if it is, I'd say it came from the guy in back, not in front, him being slumped and all.

That other helmet could just be there for some reason, or it could be the guy in front's helmet, and he just took it off prior to being blasted.

My eyes could decieve me, though, and your theory does explain the dirt in the helmet, though we have no way of knowing how it got there in the first place.

Still, if that little object in between them is a helmet, then I'd say they were hit from behind, and the second guy's helmet fell forward in front of him when he slumped forward.

[weemadando]

Theres the potential that it was a case of them surrendering while the marines were still just a little jumpy from a fire fight, or that they were hit in the crossfire while surrendering.

[haas mark]

Theres the potential that it was a case of them surrendering while the marines were still just a little jumpy from a fire fight, or that they were hit in the crossfire while surrendering.

I think that's more likely.. it seems a bit bloody down there.