"2nd Tour, Hope I Don't Die"

2006, Mosul, Iraq

Bullet holes in a wall after a deadly raid. Alpha Company of 1-17. 172nd Stryker Brigade was on an all-night operation to search ten houses. I was down the street with the company commander when we heard a single burst from a machine gun. There was a pause and then the air was choked with gunfire. We ran up the street towards the shooting. An American soldier, wounded and shaking, was being carried into a Stryker. The house was filled with American and Iraqi soldiers. Iraqi men and boys in their pajamas were lined up squatting against the wall, their arms tied behind their backs. One American soldier stood away from the others, looking downward and breathing heavily. He shook his head and murmured inaudibly. He'd been the one, another soldier whispered to me, who pulled the trigger. "Shot the Iraqi’s head to pieces."

From Peter van Agtmael's book, 2nd Tour, Hope I Don't Die (2009, Photolucida).