Posted on 05/19/2004 10:33:40 AM PDT by areafiftyone
More than 40 people have been killed in a US helicopter attack in Iraq, according to AP news agency.
Al Arabiya television has put the death toll at more than 20 civilians.
Iraqi officials have said the helicopter fired on a wedding in the west of the country.
The US military said it could not confirm the report and is investigating.
Lt Col Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of Ramadi, said between 42 and 45 people were killed in the attack, which took place about 2:45am in a remote desert area near the border with Syria and Jordan.
He said the dead included 15 children and 10 women.
Doctor Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.
AP reported that Iraqi witnesses said partygoers were firing in the air in traditional wedding celebration.
American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.
More follows..
This won't be good.
T.F.B.
Yes, but there were bottles of Sarin hidden under the wedding table you idiots! Just note the location: near the Syrian border - perhaps there happened to be an important "guest" at the wedding who was a high value target?
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party early Wednesday in western Iraq (news - web sites), killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating.
Lt. Col Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of the city of Ramadi, said between 42 and 45 people died in the attack, which took place about 2:45 a.m. in a remote desert area near the border with Syria and Jordan. He said those killed included 15 children and 10 women.
Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.
Associated Press Television News obtained videotape showing a truck containing bodies of those allegedly killed.
About a dozen bodies, one without a head, could be clearly seen. but it appeared that bodies were piled on top of each other and a clear count was not possible.
Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said partygoers had fired into the air in a traditional wedding celebration. American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.
"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," Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military spokesman, 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 video footage showed mourners with shovels digging graves. A group of men crouched and wept around one coffin.
Al-Ani said people at the wedding fired weapons in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and left. However, al-Ani said, helicopters attacked the area at about 3 a.m. Two houses were destroyed, he said.
U.S. troops took the bodies and the wounded in a truck to Rutba hospital, 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."
In July 2002, Afghan officials said 48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan (news - web sites)'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.
The DUers are all over this salivating like the dogs they are.
bump !
Well, I'll wait for the other side of the story but firing weapons in a war zone isn't a good idea period, what goes up must come down and innocent civys can be injured by such gunfire. Shame it had to happen. Perhaps they need to intorduce Chinese fireworks to Iraq for celebrations.
Hey, maybe it wasn't the Americans at all. Maybe one of the celebrants accidentally touched off a few of those special celebratory fireworks. You know, the green, pineapple-shaped ones made by that kindly lady, Amy Surplus?
The thing I don't understand is a wedding party at 2:45 a.m?
Try throwing rice !
Sorry, but that's just the law of natural consequences at work.
Nobody made these apes recklessly discharge their weapons into the air and so long as we continue the guise of viewing them as humans, they'll have to take responsibility for their own actions.
Owl_Eagle
" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"
Paging Charles Darwin.
At least, not without a keg of beer and a polka band.
LOL
I guess people are losing interest in the Abu Graib prison "scandal". Time to drum up something new.
This is a propaganda set up ... don't doubt for a minute that Zarqawi wouldn't slaughter women and children to get a propaganda piece the Arab press would gobble up willingly. Intergity is not something the Arab Press comprehends.
Q. How many Islamic wedding parties have been mowed down by "celebratory gunfire?"
A. More than one.
Yeah, 2:45 am seems strange. And if there were 20 or so 'civilians' among the 45, who were the others, by the way?
I've been to many wedding parties that went on beyond midnight to 3 or four in the morning. This incident sounds like it is heading towards a tragic response to cultural misunderstandings, etc. The quicker and the more open the military addresses this issue, the better. The same thing happened in Afghanistan. I believe the US was upfront about it after investigations, etc. That incident doesn't get talked about anymore....
Of course elections are just a few months away...the media priorities can change.....
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