Recently, world media carried the story about the U.S. shooting of an Italian kidnap victim and her security guard. At the same time, a Bulgarian soldier died as U.S. forces opened fire from a checkpoint. These stories made the news, but the regular incidents of Iraqis injured in similar ways often remain unpublicized.

An Iraqi friend asked me to visit his cousin. Lafta Rahim, 39, who has four children, was at home in his bed. He welcomed me with a smile. Then I noticed contraptions on his body. His upper left arm had an eight-inch rod parallel to the bone, attached with six pins and two clamps. His lower right leg had a similar rod, with five pins and five clamps. Bullets had shattered both bones.

Lafta told his story. On 7 January 2005 at about 6:00pm, he and a companion were on their way to visit a friend. As they passed some university buildings, shots rang out. The barrage of weapons fire stopped his car leaving fifty-two bullet holes in it. Eight bullets lodged in Lafta's body and five in his companion's body.

The attack came from a U.S. convoy driving out of university buildings that had become a U.S. base. Apparently, an unknown person fired shots at the buildings from across the road. The convoy responded, but aimed its fire randomly at passing vehicles.

Lafta's car was not alone on the street, but was last in a line of four cars. The convoy shot his car from behind. Five people in the other cars died and fifteen were injured.

I asked if the soldiers stopped to assist when they saw what had happened. My friend interrupted, "I was returning from Jordan a week ago. A driver parked his GMC along the road to use the bathroom at the gas station. He returned to see that his empty car had been sprayed with bullets from a passing U.S. convoy.

The soldiers kept moving."

Lafta replied to the original question. "The soldiers did not stop, but two young people took me to the hospital." He continued, "The bad things Saddam Hussein was doing, now the U.S. is doing. They give us no help."

Lafta and four brothers manufacture metal frames for windows and doors. He has family support and has had a good job. Now he cannot work because he is unable to move the fingers in his left hand.

His brother had asked a U.S. Army officer, "Why did you shoot civilians?" The officer responded, "We have in our army too many people acting irrationally."

It is not clear whether incidents of uncontrolled U.S. shooting at checkpoints or from convoys arise from fear, training, or lack of training. Lafta's story represents dozens of similar stories CPT members haveheard from victims, from security reports or Iraqi news. Something is out of control.