The victim in this photograph looks to be a LITTLE BOY, doesn't it, reader?
So what is the U.S. doing over there, bombing its allies?
Or just killing Muslims -- no matter who they are?
And CUI BONO, reader, CUI BONO?
"Accounts Differ Sharply on U.S. Attack in Iraq" by ALISSA J. RUBIN
BAGHDAD, Oct. 5 — American troops backed by aircraft attacked a Shiite town north of Baghdad at dawn on Friday, killing at least 25 Iraqis the military described as criminals who were involved in the transport of weapons. But Iraqis at the scene said the dead were civilians, though some were armed.
The military said it was searching for an insurgent leader believed to be associated with the elite Iranian Quds Force, which American intelligence sources believe is working in Iraq to foment violent activity by some Shiite militias. A military spokesman said the insurgent leader was not captured in the raid.
Iraqis at the scene gave an account that diverged sharply from that of the military.
They said that the Iraqis who were killed were trying to defend their town from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni militant group that American intelligence believes has foreign leadership. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been active in Diyala Province, where the town is located, but so have militias associated with the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
“The residents were defending themselves and the town,” said Uday al-Khadran, the mayor of Khalis, the district in which the fighting occurred.
“They were not militias for killing people and they were recognized by the security forces in the district, and this issue is familiar in all the towns of Khalis because of Al Qaeda threats, especially to the Shiite,” he said.
An official in the provincial office in Baquba, the provincial capital, said that the city’s hospital had received eight children, four of whom died.
However, a statement released by the American military described a serious onslaught from Iraqis in the town. As American forces approached, the statement said, they came under heavy fire and called in airstrikes. A helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft carried out the bombing, destroying two buildings.
“Responding in self-defense, the ground force returned fire,” the statement said. “Enemy fire intensified and supporting aircraft were called in an attempt to suppress the threat. The armed group continued to engage and began to aggressively maneuver toward coalition forces, firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades,” the statement added.
“The ground force also observed one armed individual carrying what appeared to be an anti-aircraft weapon into a nearby building. Perceiving hostile intent, supporting aircraft engaged.”
The town, Gizani al-Imam, has a Shiite population and is well known as a stronghold of Shiite militias. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia extremists have attacked the area repeatedly, and residents have responded by forming a guard force and keeping a night watch for possible militant incursions.
Interviews with several residents who were wounded suggest that the situation may have been extremely complex, with some townspeople members of hard-core militias fighting the Americans and others members of a local guard force that protected the town. Still other townspeople appear to have rushed out of their houses, thinking there was an attack on the town by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
At least 15 of the wounded were brought to the hospital complex at Medical City in Baghdad. One of those, Dhafir Habeeb, 35, a worker who lives in Gizani al-Imam with his family of 15, said that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia had blown up the local cellphone tower on Thursday, cutting off the town’s communications.
When the attack started early Friday, he was asleep.
“Our town is surrounded by majority Sunni towns, which are the source of the attacks by Al Qaeda,” Mr. Habeeb said. “When the strike occurred I was sleeping, but when the gunfire became heavier the whole town went out to see what happened and to defend themselves at the same time. I ran out with my gun in my hand,” he said.
“I was running to help my fellows when I was hit in the arm and leg by shrapnel,” he said.
Diyala, a large province just north of Baghdad, is narrowly divided between Sunni Arabs and Shiites, and the two groups are fighting for dominance. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia appears to be methodically cleansing Shiites from some areas of the province.
However, Shiite militias are also active, and while some of those linked to Mr. Sadr have laid down weapons for the time being on his orders, other splinter organizations have persisted in attacks on American troops and on Iraqis who are perceived as working with them.
“We continue to support the government of Iraq in welcoming the commitment by Moktada al-Sadr to stop attacks, and we will continue to show restraint in dealing with those who honor his pledge,” said Maj. Anton Alston, a military spokesman.
“We will not show the same restraint against those criminals who dishonor this pledge by attacking security forces and Iraqi citizens.”
American forces are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three Iraqi civilians on Thursday in Babil Province near the troubled town of Musayyib. The civilians were shot by American forces when they were near a checkpoint set up by Iraqis who are working with the Americans to rid the area of militias.
Four bodies were found in Baghdad on Friday, according to an Interior Ministry official."
"US raid leaves 25 militia fighters dead; Civilians among victims, Iraqis say" by Hamid Ahmed/Associated Press October 6, 2007
BAGHDAD - US forces backed by attack aircraft killed at least 25 Shi'ite militia fighters north of Baghdad yesterday in an operation targeting a cell accused of smuggling weapons from Iran, the military said.
Iraqi officials, however, said American bombs killed civilians who rushed to help those injured in the initial airstrike and claimed the only ones armed in the neighborhood were locals trying to organize themselves against Al Qaeda.
In yesterday's predawn raid in Khalis, a Shi'ite enclave about 50 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on the soldiers with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and at least one man was carrying what appeared to be an antiaircraft weapon, the military said.
Ground forces called for air support when the fighters kept coming, the military said. Two buildings were destroyed in airstrikes, it said.
An Iraqi Army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said US aircraft bombed the neighborhood repeatedly and he asserted that civilians, including seven children, were among those killed and three children were among the 28 wounded.
He said the civilians were killed when families rushed out to help those hurt in the initial bombing.
The US military said the raid was aimed at the commander of a rogue militia group believed to be associated with the Quds Force, an elite branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
But the town's top official said US forces targeted areas built up by locals to protect their Shi'ite neighborhood against attacks by Al Qaeda gunmen. The guards were armed and worked around the clock, he said.
"These places came under attack by American airstrikes," said Khalis Mayor Odai al-Khadran. "Locals were protecting themselves by guarding their village. They are not militias killing people."
Since launching a Baghdad security crackdown more than seven months ago, US troops have increasingly battled splinter groups from the country's most powerful Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army is nominally loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric, who in August ordered a temporary freeze on his followers' activities - including attacks on US troops."
And you see what putting down arms gets you, 'eh, Muslims?
Gets you an AIR ATTACK in the MOUTH and DEAD KIDS!!!
Snifffff!
Ah, the SWEET SHITSTINK of "BUSH'S LIBERATION!"
