Posted on 11/02/2003 6:33:23 PM PST by Pokey78
Holding up an American soldier's multi-coloured shorts that he had taken from the wreckage of the helicopter, the dancing Iraqi could scarcely contain his jubilation.
"Tonight we will have a double feast," shouted Mohammed Saleh, an unshaven, well-built man in his 40s, as he hopped from foot to foot in front of 100 joyous villagers.
"The first feast will be when we will break our fast for Ramadan. The second will be in praise of those who struck down our American enemies," he told the crowd.
Behind them, among the fields and palm trees, lay the twisted, blackened debris of the Chinook along with military equipment and the bodies of American soldiers, who were killed on their way out of the country for a rest and recreation break.
The nearby village of Hasai, a collection of mud and concrete huts in a rural backwater six miles to the south of Fallujah, was all but deserted as the residents milled around the crash site. "This is war," shouted one.
Four Apache attack helicopters flew overhead, but that did nothing to deter the revellers, who rushed to the scene the moment the Chinook plummeted to earth in a shower of smoke and sparks after being hit, apparently by a heat-seeking missile.
Most of the villagers had been outside, tending their fields, as two Chinook helicopters left nearby Habbaniyah airbase on a routine 20-minute flight ferrying soldiers to Baghdad airport.
Mr Saleh added: "They are always flying around here, very low and fast. I wasn't paying much attention until I heard a terrifying explosion."
Villagers said they saw a flash of light from a grove of palm trees several hundred yards away as two weapons were fired. The impact of the blast buckled the helicopter and it fell sideways towards the earth. The other projectile narrowly missed the second Chinook.
Jassim Khalaf Ahmadi, whose farm is close to the crash site, said: "It was like watching a large bird suddenly stop flying and drop out of the sky. I couldn't believe what I saw. I ran over. There were bodies everywhere and people screaming."
The undamaged Chinook briefly circled the burning wreckage, before landing nearby to deploy its troops.
"They were very, very angry, shouting and waving their guns," said Mr Ahmadi, "I ran away and hid."
Helicopters from the Habbaniyah airbase rushed to the downed helicopter to airlift the wounded out. US forces put up a security cordon around the site and tried to disperse the cheering Iraqis, with little effort on either side to disguise mutual hostility.
"Here come the bastards," shouted Mr Saleh as a company of US soldiers approached from the 10th Mountain Division, attached to the 82nd Airborne, which most of the men travelling in the Chinook helicopters were from. They in turn shouted at the "hyenas".
Neither side understood the words but the meaning was clear enough. "They are very bad people here," said Capt Scott Kirkpatrick. "The guy who shot the rockets is probably standing in the crowd over there."
Another soldier grimly predicted a night of mortaring and fresh attacks in the area - part of the "Sunni triangle", the hotbed of tribal resistance to the American-led occupation.
The nearby town of Fallujah is the scene of almost daily attacks on US forces, and more than a dozen Americans and scores of Iraqis have died there.
The villagers of Hasai were quick to deny any involvement in the attack, but proudly declared their commitment to fighting the Americans, who they blame for indiscriminate killings in the community and the arrest of village leaders.
"We are cheering because every American soldier we kill brings us one step closer to getting them out of the country for good," said one resident.
Abdul Mahmud, a taxi driver, added: "We want Bush to see his mercenaries lying dead on the ground. We want him to know that this month we are going to harm even the women."
Their sentiments were echoed in Fallujah as the ending of another day of Ramadan - the Muslim holy month that has so far seen a dramatic increase in violence - brought the faithful to prayer.
Anger was running high after a Jeep driven by American soldiers was ambushed earlier in the day, with two Iraqis killed in the ensuing gun battle.
"Is this why the Americans have come to Iraq?" said Khalid Hussein, a relative of one of the dead. "If I had a missile I'd take it out now and shoot it at the first helicopter I saw. I pray a helicopter crashes every day."
By contrast, soldiers of the 82nd Airborne, at a military base on the outskirts of Fallujah, restrained their anger, even though several of the men on board the Chinooks had been stationed with them for two months.
Staff Sgt Daryl Peterson, 28, C company, said: "It sucks to hear that so many soldiers have been killed. I'm just glad it wasn't me."
Specialist Jo Oswald, 20, said: "It's made me pretty angry. But there are soldiers dying out there all the time, you get used to hearing about dead people.
"We know this isn't a holiday camp. We just aim to keep our heads down and avoid getting hit, and hope that the troops out there nail the people who did this."
I fail to understand why the bleatings and moanings of one of the devil's own demons would convince you to put the devil in charge.
Better to just take this guy down to the prison camp in the South than leave him to continue Ramadan fasting.
Or, alternatively, maybe a Shia Iraqi policeman could just shoot him and be done with it.
What infuriates me is the knowledge that we have elected to take casualties upon ourselves to avoid casualties among them. If we chose to do so, we could annihilate them all from 30,000 ft. I expect that 90% of their population have no comprehension of this fact.
Okay, curfew is BACK ON. Anybody out of their home after 6pm will be shot on sight, Rama-lama-ding dong be damned.
I'll go for that as long as the bulldozer is parked on his legs.
I do not understand why you wish to murder all the Shia because their blood enemies don't want Americans there. This is so strange.
Do you want us to side with the Sunni Arabs against the Shia in furtherance of the murderous rampage begun by Saddam?
I think you should bring your rage to bear against the Sunnis and just leave the Shia alone. Certainly there are a sufficient number of Sunnis that their deaths would satisfy anyone's bloodlust.
Typical primitive ragheads.
Throw a few pigs into their cell and ya got a party!
I don't want to "murder" anyone. I am just tired of our brave boys putting their lives on the line for these subhumans.
They want Saddam back? Fine. Hunt him down, give him a shower and a new uniform, and give him the country back. Let him do whatever he wants with these pathetic putrid pieces of walking, wailing, fasting vomit.
US blood is to precious to spill for these ungrateful creatures.
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