Mystery shrouds whereabouts of bodies of 54 insurgents said killed by US

AFP via Yahoo News ^ | 12/01/03

[TexKat]

SAMARRA, Iraq (AFP) - The US military said it believed 54 insurgents were killed in intense exchanges in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra the previous day but commanders admitted they had no bodies.

The only corpses at the city's hospital were those of ordinary civilians, including two elderly Iranian pilgrims and a child.

US Brigadier General Mark Kimmit told a Baghdad press conference that 54 militants had been gunned down, 22 wounded and one arrested.

But challenged about what had happened to the bodies, Kimmit said: "I would suspect that the enemy would have carried them away and brought them back to where their initial base was."

Asked about reports from senior police and hospital officials in the town of eight civilians killed and dozens more wounded, the US general insisted: "We have no such reports whether from medical authorities or police.

A few hours earlier, Colonel Fredrick Rudesheim, who heads the 3rd Combat Brigades that was involved in Sunday's bloody clashes, told reporters that his troops had killed 46 and captured another 11.

"Are you asking me to produce (them)?" he asked, when questioned by reporters about the absence of any militants' bodies at Samarra's single hospital or on the city's streets.

"This is a good question and I think perhaps if you can interview the Fedayeen (a disbanded militia of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime) or whoever attacked us, you might get a better answer."

Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Gonsalves, who commands the 166th Armored Battalion in Samarra, also said his troops were not in possession of the bodies.

The death toll, he said, "is based on the reports we got from the ground."

Lieutenant Joseph Marcee, who took part in Sunday's combat, said he saw several of the attackers lying dead on the ground.

"There was no time to pick up the bodies. We were receiving fire from other locations," he said.

Sergeant Nicholas Mullen, who fired rounds from an Abrams tank Sunday, offered yet another explanation for the army's inability to locate the corpses. "We don't stick around," he said.

The mystery, which borders on solving a mathematics equation, further deepened with Gonsalves' report.

According to him, a total of 60 militants, divided into two groups, attacked two convoys escorting new Iraqi currency to banks in the city.

Another four assailants in a BMW attacked a separate engineering convoy.

If the US troops killed 46 and captured 11 of them, only three of the survivors would have been left to pick up the corpses.

On Kimmit's figures the calculus becomes even hazier -- with 54 killed, 22 wounded and one captured, 13 militants remain unaccounted for, although both commanders did say the cash convoys also came under attack on their way in and out of the city.

As to how the troops came up with their casualty figures, Rudesheim said it was by counting their weapons.

"We don't indiscriminately engage people, only those who engage us with AK 47s and RPGs. That's how we determine the number of people we are engaging and, after talking with each soldier, we can tell just how many people are returning fire at us."

Residents in Samarra said they had not seen any of the militants' bodies, 46 or 54.

The head of the local hospital, Abed Tawfiq, reported eight dead civilians but no insurgents.

Ambulance driver Abdelmoneim Mohammed said he had not ferried any combattants wounded or killed and wearing the black Fedayeen outfit which US soldiers said their assailants wore.

"If I had seen bodies, I would have picked them up. It's not like the Americans would have done it.

"If the death toll had reached that announced by the Americans, the atmosphere in Samarra would be quite different."

Salaheddin Mawlud, a colonel in the former Iraqi army, who now heads Samarra city council's complaints office, said the American toll does not work.

"If there had been so many dead, we would have seen people rushing to the hospital, the police station or here, and it just didn't happen."

Abdelrizek Jadwa, who owns a grocery 50 meters (yards) from the scene of one of the attacks, said he did not have the shadow of a doubt.

"After the firing, I went out of my shop. There were no wounded, no killed on the streets. Where could they have disappeared?"

[TexKat]

They were in a hurry, they could not wait to be buried. They were in a hurry to handled those 72 virgins.

And on top of that are we expected to kill em and bury em also.

[Enterprise]

The new civil authority put them through the shredders.

[Kay Soze]

54 "insurgents"?

I thought we killed 54 ro-dents!

Jessica Lynch "puff up" story I'm afraid.

[Travis McGee]

Shhh! Don't tell anybody, but the secret US Army Body Collecting Team took them away to be buried in swineskins, with their bums facing mecca.

[AgThorn]

Hmmmm ... this doesn't smell right.

[Krafty123]

Sure it does. I'm betting there's a micro GPS transmitter implanted in some of the bodies.

[plain talk]

According to him, a total of 60 militants, divided into two groups, attacked two convoys ... If the US troops killed 46 and captured 11 of them, only three of the survivors would have been left to pick up the corpses

This shows how dumned down people have become to think in such a limited way and pose such a stupid statement. I guess it never occurred to them that the 60 people is an estimate of enemy they could see and who they were engaged in combat with. There were certainly more terrorists behind the scenes.

[Ronin]

Sounds to me like someone on the other side is a thinker. If we cannot produce the bodies, they can claim we are fabricating the body count.

It's all about perceptions. The enemy understands that the leftist media are their natural allies and can be counted on to downplay any positive development.

Once again, this changes the rules. We are not only going to have to kill them, we are going to have to hang onto the bodies and any weapons we capture. If we don't, we might as well forget mentioning it.

[clamboat]

The commander made it known that he wanted a body count, and he got a body count. You're right, this stinks. The count was estimated by talking to the people engaged in the middle of a firefight? Uh, if we have such a mastery of the siutation on the ground it would seem a small matter to get out and count the corpses after the firefight. Instead our guys need to retreat, because even after kicking ass they don't feel secure in the area.

[tracer]

"Mystery shrouds whereabouts of bodies of 54 insurgents said killed by US"

Perhaps a closer look at the photos of GW having Thanksgiving dinner with our warriors is in order.

"Insurgent. The other white meat....."

Ha!! There!! I said it before the voices on the "Arab street" even thought of it.....

(started to repent but decided against it)

[jwalsh07]

The vietnamization of the press has reached full bore. It is the only similarity between Vietnam and Iraq.

[tracer]

Sounds like a question on a MENSA qualification test....

[Toskrin]

With that many killed and so few injured, I suspect that most of the casualties were in a single location, like the room of a building or a bus. If the eyewitnesses were not at that location, they wouldn't see the bodies.

[tracer]

"After the firing, I went out of my shop. There were no wounded, no killed on the streets. Where could they have disappeared?"

OK, the jig is up, Jadwa. We already know about your special sale on ground round and BBQ ribs tomorrow.....

[jolie560]

There is no reason to hang around in a fire-fight zone just to produce the dead bodies so that the press can "do the mathmatics on" the fire-fight.

[TexKat]

Ping

[Moosehead]

I'm guessing there are some funny numbers being reported by the military...it has happened before.

[PoorMuttly]

Obviously a deal we made with our new secret weapon..Bat-Boy.

He tends to eat what/whom he terminates. Oh well. Photos advisable next time...

[mikegi]

Hmmmm, who to believe [drumming fingers on desk]? Hostile Iraqis who chant "long live Saddam" or our soldiers???

[Darksheare]

Now they can't seem to find the bodies of the 54 dead fedayeen in Samarra.
The press is whining about it, they want to mourn their fallen friends.

Bodies?
After a pounding with tank guns, there weren't any stinking bodies..
Sarge, did you see any bodies?
Nope, I didn't see any bodies.
Carry on soldiers...
*snort*