In many ways, the Sarias are a typical first-generation American family, but in some ways they stand out. Sam, who was born in Iraq, speaks flawless English with a slight accent, and the Sarias are members of the Mandaean faith.

Mandaeans are not Muslims, Christians, or Jews, but are in fact the descendants of the followers of John the Baptist. The Mandaeans have lived as a distinct people in Iraq for over 2000 years.

But in February, Sam Saria’s American experience changed forever when he found out that his sister Amada had been killed by American soldiers in Baghdad.

Here’s how it happened.

Amada’s family is from West Baghdad. In February, Amada and her husband Munem decided to take advantage of the winter school vacation to let their daughters, Sarah, age 17 and Haneen, age 18, spend some time with relatives who live across town.  Since the occupation, it’s been difficult for extended families in Baghdad to stay in touch, so this was to be a special occasion.

On the morning of February 3, 2005, the girls, Haneen and Sarah, their father Munem, and mother Amada piled into the grey 1986 Volkswagen that Munem uses to support his family as a taxi driver. 

Many people in Baghdad such as Munem employ their own cars as taxis in order to make ends meet, and Munem uses his 20-year-old taxi to feed his family and put a roof over his family’s head—although the rented house in which his family lives lacks even a door or glass windows.

That day, with her husband Munem at the wheel, Amada Saria and her family slowly made their way through the crowded streets of West Baghdad toward the Airport Highway. As they turned the last corner before the highway entrance, five shots rang out.

The shots had come from a group of American Humvees huddled near the highway underpass. The troops had opened fire without warning on the family’s car from 90 feet away. 

Amada was sitting in the passenger seat. One of the bullets that pierced the windshield struck her in the head.

The troops stood by watching as an Iraqi police car took Amada Saria and her family to the nearby Al-Yarmouk Hospital. When Amada arrived at the hospital’s Emergency Room, she was already near death. Outside the entrance to the ER, Munem, his clothes soaked in the blood from his wife’s head wound, paced relentlessly, and eventually collapsed from grief and exhaustion.

By then Amada’s two teenage daughters, Haneen, and Sarah, had become so hysterical that they had to be heavily sedated by the hospital staff.

Although their mother was shortly transferred to another hospital for neurosurgery, she died later that day. Amada Saria was 48 years old.

In addition to her daughters and husband, Amada Saria also leaves behind a 20-year-old son, Hassan.

The family still lives in their windowless rented house in West Baghdad. Munem is working odd jobs trying to get some money to repair his taxi. Without his wife, he is struggling alone to pay the rent and to care for his youngest daughter Sarah who now suffers from severe clinical depression that keeps her from attending school or otherwise leading a normal life.

Several weeks before this article went to press, the authors provided the US Army with photographic and factual details that we used in telling this story. We also alerted the Army to the fact that Amada Saria’s extended family includes American citizens and asked the Army to comment on whether the combat rules of engagement had been followed in the case of her death. 

The Army did not reply to our repeated detailed inquiries. In the three months since Amada’s death, neither her brother, Sam Saria in Connecticut, nor the family of her husband, Munem Salim in West Baghdad, have received an explanation or any other contact from the US military or US government authorities.

This report was a made possible by “Mariam,” a Baghdad correspondent. “Mariam” (a pseudonym) is an Iraqi woman who provided photographs and in-person interviews for this report at her own expense, and at times exposing herself to significant personal risk.

Additional assistance was provided by the Mandaean Associations Union, an international charitable organization of and for Mandaeans, providing help to Mandaean people in need worldwide such as the family of Amada Saria in Baghdad.

* This piece is the result of the collaboration between Antiwar.com and IslamOnline.net.

Mark Rothschild is a US citizen living in Los Angeles, where he writes a column for Antiwar.com about US foreign policy—mostly on topics relating to military policy and geopolitics. Since the invasion of Iraq, he has focused primarily on US conduct of the occupation.  Mark Rothschild can be reached at mark.rothschild.office@verizon.net