Autopsy reveals dead Gaza flotilla activists were shot 30 times at close range

London, June 5 (ANI): The nine Turkish men killed onboard the humanitarian aid ship Mavi Marmara were shot 30 times at close range, an autopsy has revealed.

This revelation has exposed the falsity of Israel's claim that its commandos were first attacked, and therefore, it had to retaliate.ccording to The Guardian, Israel is under pressure now to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla.

The Guardian quotes the autopsy as saying that those killed were peppered with 9mm bullets at close range. Five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.

The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

The findings emerged as more survivors gave their accounts of the raids.

Ismail Patel, the chairman of Leicester-based pro-Palestinian group Friends of al-Aqsa, who returned to Britain today, told how he witnessed some of the fatal shootings and claimed that Israel had operated a "shoot to kill policy".

He calculated that during the bloodiest part of the assault, Israeli commandos shot one person every minute.

Israel said tonight the number of bullets found in the bodies did not alter the fact that the soldiers were acting in self defence. (ANI)