Posted on 05/24/2004 12:43:07 AM PDT by manwiththeplan
A videotape has been broadcast which purports to show before-and-after footage of a wedding which Iraqis say the US attacked, killing about 40. The film, broadcast by Associated Press Television News, knits together a home movie of a wedding and APTN video of the aftermath of Wednesday's attack.
Some victims and survivors of the air strike appear to be present in the footage of the wedding celebrations.
The US has insisted its target was not a wedding but foreign fighters.
It says that its soldiers were responding to fire and there was no evidence of a wedding.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday at the village of Makr al-Deeb, in desert near the Syrian border.
Associated Press has stressed that it cannot confirm the authenticity of the video of the wedding celebrations.
'Traditional wedding'
The agency says the material broadcast was taken from several hours of footage allegedly filmed by Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, hired to record the festivities.
He was among those killed, it says.
The film opens with gleaming pick-up trucks - some decorated with ribbons - speeding through the desert apparently en route to the wedding.
They arrive at the celebrations to the sounds of guns being fired in the air - a traditional celebration - and ululating.
The film then shows men dancing along to the music of Hussein al-Ali, a popular wedding singer also hired for the occasion.
Ali and his brother Mohamed were buried in Baghdad on Thursday, mourners said.
Clearly visible on the wedding footage is a man playing electric organ.
The footage is spliced with APTN film of the face of a corpse after the attack. It appears to be the same man, wearing the same shirt.
AP says a reporter and a photographer who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing were able to identify many of them on the wedding party video.
It also says its footage of the scene following the attack shows remnants of musical instruments, pots and pans, and brightly coloured beddings used for celebrations, scattered around a bombed-out tent.
Survivors of the attack have told journalists the wedding party had ended and guests were in bed when bombing began.
When people ran out of their homes, they allege they were shot at by Americans.
They say over 40 people died, including at least 10 children.
But these allegations have been vehemently and repeatedly denied by US forces in Iraq.
'No evidence'
"There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the chief US military spokesman in Iraq, said on Saturday.
"The men were almost all military-aged, no family elders that one would expect to see at an event of this type," he said.
He has denied any children were killed in the attack.
Gen Kimmitt said the site looked "somewhat of a dormitory. There were more than 300 sets of bedding gear in it and about 100 sets of pre-packaged clothing.
"It's suspected that when foreign fighters come in from other countries they change their clothes into typical Iraqi clothing sets."
He said ID-making machines and "the capability to make exit visas for Iraq" were among suspicious items found.
There has been no specific response as yet to the footage released by APTN.
I have reached the point that anything the AP puts out is suspect to me.
Let's see now, not one mention of women, not even one woman, in this description. Just men riding around shooting. Perhaps this is the equivalent of an Arab bachelor party. And then they go splice tape in. Not good evidence but it'll play in the Arab (3rd World) and Hate-America (1st World) worlds.
Ten children that probably would have grown up to fly planes into our buildings, or blow themselves up on our streets.
Maybe it was a Boston new style wedding.
Doesn't upset me at all, you should be upset that your beloved liberal media is being shown for what they are, anti-American shills.
Heck, I don't care if there was a wedding in an enemy camp, we targeted the right place, and got some bad guys. They had their "wedding" on the wrong day, in the wrong place, and they were shooting guns. I'm sorry about "innocent" deaths, but the fact is that women, and even "children" in that part of the world can also be our enemies.
And, if they're trying to imply that their terrorist weddings are a celebration of life, I fail to see the reasoning.
Please get your facts straight in trying to spread FUD. Kimmit didn't say that. It was Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division who reportedly said "Ten miles from the Syrian border and 80 miles from the nearest city and a wedding party? Don't be naive," and "Plus, they had 30 males of military age with them. How many people go to the middle of the desert to have a wedding party?"
So you have first hand information that refutes the claim that the vehicles and weaponry at the scene indicate that these were not locals?
Geraldo a left wing communist turned foaming at the mouth right winger, is now appears trying to have it both ways.
So it's OK to kill the children, then.
Maybe it's not EITHER - OR, but BOTH - AND: "Both a wedding party and a safehouse for bad guys."
I don't say there were children - or even a real wedding there. I'm sure the enquiries will soon allow us to know what transpired there given the cautious ton of the AP wires, I suppose the wedding could well have been a bunch of terrorists rejoicing about one thing or other.
I was just reacting to the "ten children who would have grown up to crash planes into our building" comment of Shut Up And Take It. It had this "oh, so what if we'd kill children, after all" undertone that angers me. I couldn't care less about what happens to Islamic Fundamentalists and terrorists, but I just don't believe children are legitimate targets.
And I'd like to know more about these so called "children". Probably more like 17 year old boys attending boot camp.
After the smash hit that the terrorists had with the Berg video, I think they just are adding more fuel to the fire for the peacniks here. I don't really care what it was, and I don't consider myself that kind of person.
I feel so numb by the neverending assault of the propaganda media. I am mugged daily on my front porch when I open my paper, I don't watch any mainstream news because I will just be lied to, and I don't want to have to familiarize myself with the names of people and places that I wish would drop off the face of the earth. My one solace is that come November, I can walk into that voting booth and shove it right back at them.
Great eye. I haven't seen that movie in...?...30 years but I remember it as very powerful.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.