Those killed were military trained and placed on board to resist the boarding party

Submitted by David Goshen (Israel), Mar 22, 2013 at 18:12

The 9 militants who lost their lives in clashes with the Israeli boarding party were part of a group of 50 odd placed on board the Marmara at a separate location to the peaceful protesters.They boarded without passports of identity documents and brought with them electric discs to cut railings to be used as attack weapons,they had knives and numerous weapons for hand to hand fighting. It is likely they they had firearms as some of the shots fired were not by the boarding party and their source has never been established.

The armed & militarily trained group told protesters that they would fight to the death and wished to die as martyrs.When the boarding started the protesters were confined to their cabins& were not allowed on deck presumably to avoid witnesses. There was absolutely no connection between the protesters and the military trained militants who, if they wanted to fight to death, achieved their purpose..

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