It's all the fog of war, so you'll hear from both sides, then decide for yourself.
"U.S. and Iraqi Accounts Vary Concerning Airstrike That Kills at Least 20" by SABRINA TAVERNISE
BAGHDAD, Dec. 8 —
The United States military: said that 20 people had been killed, including 2 women, and that they were all insurgents tied to Al Qaeda.
The American military described Friday’s attack this way: The strike occurred before dawn, shortly after American soldiers came under fire as they searched buildings. Soldiers fired back, killing two gunmen, but the shooting did not stop, and the Americans called in “close air support,” which fired down on the area, killing 18 people. Two of those killed were women.
“Al Qaeda in Iraq has both men and women supporting and facilitating their operations, unfortunately,” the military said in a statement. American soldiers found a weapons cache that included machines guns, suicide vests and rocket-propelled grenades, the military said.
A military spokesman, Sgt. Sky Laron, declined to give the name of the village where the battle occurred but said it was 15 miles south of Samarra and 30 miles west of Balad.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman, said that American forces had entered the site after the strike and that they counted 20 bodies:
"[None of them were children]. We see Al Qaeda conducting operations to kill civilians, and it starts the cycle of sectarian violence all over again."
Iraqis: Iraqi officials gave death tolls that ranged from 22 to 32... the deceased were two extended families that included as many as 10 children.
Two Iraqi officials — the governor of the province and an official from the administration of the town of Ishaqi — said that the strike had taken place in a village near Ishaqi, and that it had killed members of the extended families of two brothers, Muhammad Hussein al-Jalmood and Mahmood Hussein al-Jalmood.
A senior official in the Salahuddin governor’s office said that six children had been killed. Amer Alwan, the official from Ishaqi, disputed the military's account, saying that 10 men, four women and 10 children in his village were killed.
The official in the Salahuddin governor’s office acknowledged that a fight appeared to have taken place, as investigators found empty bullet casings sprinkled near the site of the strike. Mr. Alwan said nothing of a battle and contended that all those who were killed were civilians.
“I call on the Americans to protect the lives of the civilians,” Hamid al-Qaisi, the governor of the province, said by telephone. He put the death toll at 22.
Ishaqi police Captain Mohammed Faisal said that two houses belonging to two brothers were destroyed in the bombing. Khalaf Muhammed, 41, a farmer in the Tharthar area, also said that two houses were bombed and that 18 people lived in them. He said neighbors found the bodies of the women and children in the rubble.
The Arbiters
Sharqiya, an Iraqi satellite channel, broadcast images from what it said was the scene of the strike, showing the twisted body of one child, who looked to be about 10. It also showed people digging in the rubble of a destroyed building and women crying next to corpses wrapped in colored blankets.
The Associated Press: released a photo of a man holding a dead child at the bombing site.
Agence-France Press: another news agency, also showed photographs of dead children.
The Iraq Study Group, in its report, criticized the American military for what it said was a chronic undercounting of attacks.
The Reactions
Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second highest-ranking military commander in Iraq, said of the strike:
“I can promise you that in every one of these incidents that occurs, that it will be fully investigated.”
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, asked about the photos, said troops who conducted the raid reported they had found no children and said that the two women whom troops reported killing were suspected insurgents:
"We didn't see anything in those photos that specifically link the children to the airstrike. There's nothing to indicate they were noncombatants."
Residents of Ishaqi: not the first they have accused American troops of misconduct. Local police officials earlier this year accused American soldiers of killing civilians then covering it up with an airstrike. This spring, a US military investigation cleared US soldiers of killing 11 civilians before calling for an airstrike in a March 15 raid on a suspected insurgent hideout.
So everyone is an insurgent now, and we will CLEAR OUR MEN no matter how much blood and destruction we visit upon the Iraqis!!!
Investigate? Pah!
Here is more mayhem that occurred in Iraq yesterday:
In southern Iraq, the British military said that more than 1,000 British and Danish troops raided villages north of Basra and arrested four Iraqis whom a spokesman identified as members of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia.
In a predawn sweep of houses to arrest suspects in murders, kidnappings, and attacks on coalition forces, according to a statement from the British military.
British Major Charlie Burbridge said five Iraqis were detained in the raids near Basra. He described them as members of a "rogue, breakaway element" of one of the area's many Shi'ite militias.
The suspects were directly involved in local attacks. Burbridge called it the largest search and detention operation that coalition forces have conducted in southern Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
The coalition has said the raid consisted of multiple missions that occurred at the same time. The Danish soldiers arrived from the north, while British armored vehicles drove in from the south.
A total of at least 47 Iraqis were killed or found dead yesterday, including 25 who died when mortar shells landed in a poor Shiite neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital.
A separate mortar attack yesterday evening in the Nahrawan neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad killed 12 people and wounded 11.... A suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car at an Iraqi Army checkpoint in the northern town of Tal Afar, killing three civilians and injuring 15, including Iraqi soldiers.
In another raid... troops captured seven suspected insurgents near Fallujah in Anbar Province and destroyed a building containing a weapons cache, according to the military. Most of the cache, which included materials for making bombs, was buried in the floors of the house.
Yesterday's raids were part of US-led forces' stepped-up efforts to capture insurgents and their weapons. Much of their focus has been on Baghdad, but fighting continues in Anbar Province, another deadly place for American troops."
You think that is enough blood for the Great Deceiver?
