Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/01/2003 3:49:38 PM PST by MadIvan
Iraqi Fedayeen paramilitaries used children as human shields during a battle with troops, a British tank commander said yesterday.
Sgt David Baird, who commands a Challenger 2 tank from C Squadron of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battle group, said that he had witnessed at least four or five children, aged between five and eight, being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and held by Iraqi fighters as they crossed a road in front of his tank.
Sgt Baird said the Iraqis had moments earlier been firing rocket-propelled grenades at his tank. He added that he had been forced to halt any retaliatory fire because of the danger of hitting the children.
"We were just to the south east of Basra and we were being fired upon by rocket-propelled grenades," he said. "I could see the Iraqis ahead of us at a crossroads. They were wearing black jump-suits with red shamaghs. They were Fedayeen and I was preparing to fire at them.
"They were crossing the road to try and outflank us on the left and, as they crossed, four or five of them grabbed kids by the scruff of their necks and dragged them across with them. They were using them as human shields so that I had to stop firing.
"The children were only five to eight years old. There were lots of women and children there. It was a busy crossroads but they didn't seem to care.
"I am married with a son of nine months and I just felt disgusted. In this part of the world it seems that life is not held in the same way as we regard it. It was terrible."
The incident happened at a crossroads in the village of Kuj Al Mum.
Sgt Baird, 32, from Kilwinning, Ayrshire, said that when the Iraqi fighters crossed the road the children were freed and allowed to return to run back to their mothers.
He then fired at the building in which they were sheltering, killing about six of them and the gunner destroyed the building. Shortly afterwards his tank was crippled after being hit several times by rocket propelled grenades, which destroyed the tank's sighting system and his machine gun.
"It was scary," Sgt Baird said. "I was very, very scared. Initially when I was tilted over to the side I thought that was it. I thought my time was up. Then I felt better when my troop leader called up and my squadron leader called up to rescue us and to retrieve our tanks.
"The squadron leader was very calm. He just walked over to us even though there were rounds going off all over."
Sgt Baird witnessed the use of children during a battle on Sunday fought by Royal Marines and tanks from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards to the south of Basra which resulted in the capture of two Iraqi villages.
He was speaking after returning to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards base to the west of Basra where his tank was yesterday undergoing repairs to make it battle worthy once more.
Regards, Ivan
They don't respect "innocent" life. All life is theirs for the using as they see fit. So long as its extinguished to stop the "agression" of "Zionists" then it will be for a just purpose in their eyes.
Of course they don't ask the children. They just assume the children will accept this as truth. Check out this. Its a caller to Arab TV saying [he] teaches his daughter everyday to hate Jews and then shows glee when the daughter tells [him] everyday that she hates them.
Ummmmm...If I were a Fedayeen, somehow the thought of "lads" coming after me wouldn't quite instill a sense of fear in me. When I think of "lads", I think of young men sitting around and drinking warm beer and slapping each other on the back.
I'm sure you can do better. Try again, and this time,
LEMME HEAR YOUR WAR CRY!!!!!
Our guys are forced to stop firing, and are put in danger because a few kids were grabbed by these maniacs.
It's an ugly war, and civilians are going to die. It's outrageous that our men should be endangered because we're ringing our hands over a few of the enemy's children that might be killed.
My God...we'd never have won World War II in this PC age.
This just turns my stomach. It's disgusting. Not just the sickening cowardice of the Islamokazis, but the pathetic, spineless cowardice of our leaders who have saddled our troops with this impossible PC bullsh!t in a war zone...
Love, Ivan
BTW..you talk about the children as 'enemy's children'. For a second there I thought this was about 'liberation' NOT conquering. Those children are enemies of NO ONE!
I did say they were the children of the enemy. Because all the PC jabbering about "liberation" in the world doesn't change the fact that they're all our enemies until proven otherwise, or until conquered.
It's infantile naivety to believe that this isn't a war of conquest. All wars are wars of conquest. Liberation comes after conquest, if the victor so desires it.
Endangering our troops because a few "chilllll-drrrrruuuuuuhhhhhnnnnnnn" might be killed, is unaccetable. You kill the enemy. If a few children or civilians die, so be it, that's the price of war. I'm not willing to see our boys lives expended protecting children of a people that may end up growing up to hate us, and fight us, no matter what we've done for them. I'm not convinced we're going to "engender love" in all the Islamokazis over there. Not at all. I think it's naive and childish to believe so.
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