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Fredericksburg, Virginia, Thursday, May 20,
2004
U.S.
Aircraft Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A U.S. aircraft
fired on a house in the desert near the Syrian
border Wednesday, and Iraqi officials said more
than 40 people were killed, including children. The
U.S. military said the target was a suspected
safehouse for foreign fighters from Syria, but
Iraqis said a helicopter had attacked a wedding
party.
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 was decapitated. The body of
a girl who appeared to be less than 5 years of age
lay in a white sheet, her legs riddled with wounds
and her dress soaked in blood.
The attack happened 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 42 to
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.
Military officials in Washington refused to
address the question of whether anyone from a
wedding party was among the people killed.
In a statement, the U.S. Central Command said
coalition forces conducted a military operation at
3 a.m. against a
"suspected foreign
fighter safe house" in the open desert, about 50
miles southwest of Husaybah and 15 miles from the
Syrian border.
The coalition troops came under
hostile fire and
"close air support was provided," the statement
said. The troops recovered weapons, Iraqi and
Syrian currency, some passports and some satellite
communications gear, it 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.
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.
Al-Ani, the doctor, said American troops came to
investigate the gunfire 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."
Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military
spokesman, said earlier that 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.
The strike, widely
reported in Iraq and the Middle East as an
attack on a wedding party, comes at a time when
American prestige is under fire as the United
States tries to stabilize this country before
the June 30 transfer of sovereignty are
foundering.
Anti-American sentiment has risen following last
month's bloody Marine siege of Fallujah, a Shiite
Muslim uprising and the scandal over treatment of
Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
"Many Iraqis have been killed so far" during the
occupation, said Adnan Pachachi, one of the
most pro-American figures on the Iraqi Governing
Council. He said Iraqis "hope that these acts, from
all parties, come to an end because the victims are
Iraqis."
In July 2002, Afghan officials said 48 civilians
at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a
U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.
An investigative report released by the U.S.
Central Command said the airstrike was justified
because American planes had come under
fire.
Atrocity-galleries from a
"bloodless war": Thousands
of images of the Iraqi victims of Bush and
Blair
How to Shoot a Wounded
Iraqi "That
was awesome, let's do it
again!"
[video, WMV,
zip file, 1
MB]
Robert Fisk reports: Video
pictures of US helicopter crew shooting wounded
men have been censored by British and European
TV (see below)
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