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?"

[ChefKeith]

muslims bury the dead quickly, part of the beliefs of ragheadisim.

[txhurl]

Could be we just stunned and captured them. Is why there's no bodies.

That'd freak the 'insurgents' out: send out the fejhadeen (sp) and they just never come back?

[Darksheare]

Catch them and claim we killed them?
*Laughs evilly*
THAT would be hysterical.

[John W]

Although I was as pleased as anyone the day this came out,in the back of mind was the thought that body counting is a,pardon the expression,dead end.

[tet68]

Ok if we can't prove it, the dead will know not to do it again.

[archy]

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*

Okay keep this quiet, see? You know that big deal dinner with the president? It seems the turkeys for the dinner never arrived. And good soldiers WILL improvise....

Those 4th ID messcooks are REAL artistes!

Here you go guys...Iraqi turkey! Don't ask, don't tell!

[tubebender]

AFP via Yahoo News ^ | 12/01/03 I have lost my Wheaties "SECRET DECODER RING" Who is the AFP...

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I guess we will have to begin scalping them in the future...

[Darksheare]

LOL!!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Maybe you should go over to Iraq and show them how to do it, tough guy.

[SteamShovel]

I'd bet that this is a new tactic on the part of the terrorist insurgency: "Take your bodies back and only let civilian bodies be taken to the hospital/morgue. That way, the Americans look like screwballs for claiming kills that 'do not exist' and 'cold blooded civilian killers'." This is just another way they are trying to change the rules, incite muslim/arab unrest against the "occupiers" and spook the American public.

I'm not saying I would fall for it personally, but I trust our soldier's ability to judge a kill better than a 100% error out of 54 so this is the only way I can make sense of this.

[ConservativeMan55]

Bump!!!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Right, when given the option of believing our military or a bunch of thugs from a dangerous region of Iraq, I'm going to go with the Iraqis. what a maroon.

[SandRat]

Ok AFP you want it that way?

Australian enemy body count rules from Nam are now in effect. You can't call in a dead count until you can stand on the body and photo it. No causalty count on the enemy unless you can follow a trail of blood for a Klick; course by then you should have a body count kicker.

[putupon]

Nature's Vacuum Cleaner

[onedoug]

Oh, Boy! Body counts, again. Winning by attrition. That's a morale booster, alright.

[prairiebreeze]

Any bodies that were in any shape to be buried, were buried by the villagers. Or carted off by them or the remnants of the enemy.

Prairie

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

They're reviving an old group;