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| Was this attack justified? |
Doc05 |
05/20/04 |
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party in the remote desert near the border with Syria, killing more than 40 people, most of them women and children, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it attacked a safehouse for foreign fighters near Syria.
Associated Press Television News footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled one atop the other. Several were children, one of whom had been decapitated.
The attack on the wedding party occurred about 2:45 a.m. in a desert region near the border with Syria and Jordan, according to Lt. Col. Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of Ramadi, the provincial capital about 250 miles to the east. He said between 42 and 45 people died, including 15 children and 10 women. Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.
The area, a desolate region populated only by shepherds, is popular with smugglers, including weapons smugglers, and the U.S. military suspects militants use it as a route to slip in from Syria to fight the Americans. It is under constant surveillance by American forces.
Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said revelers had fired volleys of gunfire into the air in a traditional wedding celebration before the attack took place. American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.
Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military spokesman, said the military was investigating.
"I cannot comment on this because we have not received any reports from our units that this has happened nor that any were involved in such a tragedy," Williams wrote in an e-mail in response to a question from The Associated Press.
"We take all these requests seriously and we have forwarded this inquiry to the Joint Operations Center for further review and any other information that may be available," Williams said.
One military officer at the Pentagon said a U.S. military operation was carried out at about 3 a.m. Wednesday against a "foreign fighter safehouse" in the desert about 15 miles from the Syrian border.
The U.S. troops came under hostile fire and called in close-air support. The officer said he did not know what type of aircraft was called in. He refused to say who was killed by the aircraft.
The U.S. troops recovered weapons, Iraqi and Syrian currency, some passports and some satellite communications gear, the officer said.
APTN video footage showed mourners with shovels digging graves over a wide dusty area in Ramadi, the provincial capital where bodies of the dead had been taken to obtain death certificates. A group of men crouched and wept around one coffin.
Al-Ani, the doctor, said people at the wedding fired weapons in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and left. However, al-Ani said, helicopters later arrived and attacked the area. Two houses were destroyed, he said.
"This was a wedding and the (U.S.) planes came and attacked the people at a house. Is this the democracy and freedom that (President) Bush has brought us?" said a man on the videotape, Dahham Harraj. "There was no reason."
Another man shown on the tape, who refused to give his name, said the victims were at a wedding party "and the U.S. military planes came... and started killing everyone in the house." (AP)
Comments please? |
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 05/20/04 5:34 am:
there is no clear information on this yet .I will comment when more facts are known .Something simular happened in 2002 in Kakrak Afghanistan . In both cases it appears that the U.S. responded when they claim they were under attack . In the Afghan case ,probably like this one the custom of firing weapons in celebration could be a factor. But insurgents may well take advantage of a wedding celebration to cause mischief . The U.S. in Iraq said that they came under direct fire ;not random firing . The insurgents have used human shields already in Iraq on many occasions .They have fired at the U.S. from minarettes ,and cried foul when the U.S. damaged the mosque. I would not put it past them to put a wedding party at risk to achieve their goals. Clarification/Follow-up by Doc05 on 05/20/04 7:40 am:
You are correct in that with any celebration their custom is to fire into the air - also, being close to the Syrian border, and we know that weapons are transported through that border, it just might be the case. I was reading Nahrnet, a Beirut based newspaper this morning and this is what they wrote. Just wanted comments. Thanks for your feeback.
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 05/20/04 11:05 am:
more info incoming
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 05/20/04 11:13 am:
first photos of the incident incoming Clarification/Follow-up by Doc05 on 05/20/04 1:18 pm:
Chou, I know that the whole thing was a big set up for our military - no one gets married in a field that only Shepards have there sheep in. Especially at 2:30 a.m. It is close to the Syrian border, our troops were there, it is a known place for terrorists to get their arms and as for the bodies, they were killed beforehand to make us look bad. So, please, I may have a bleeding heart naivete, but on this one, nothing is clouded.
Clarification/Follow-up by XCHOUX on 05/20/04 2:15 pm:
Doc: I don't read all of the long posts. Take a jist from how they start out, and this one started out like anti-American propaganda. Clarification/Follow-up by Doc05 on 05/20/04 4:00 pm:
I can see where you might have thought that. Thanks. Diana
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