Posted on 03/25/2003 7:41:25 PM PST by jrushing
Iraqi paramilitaries are using civilians as human shields, Sky News has learnt.
Militiamen facing besieging British troops outside Basra are forcing locals to march in front of them as they fire on soldiers, UK forces claim.
(Excerpt) Read more at sky.com ...
Im certain you were just kidding, right? Right? Tell me you were...
If and when the first gas/bio canisters are released in this war, it will be "a whole new ballgame."
And the problem with that is...?
If thats all it takes to keep the Brits and the USA from fighting back, we ought to leave now.
I suspect that the old "hide behind the civilian" trick is about to become extremely ineffective.
Just how many Iraqi civilians are worth the life of one coalition soldier?.
I start the bidding at 25,000.
I start the bidding at 25,000.
That is one of the most racist remarks I've read on FreeRepublic. You should be ashamed.
If the civilians are still there after that, its not going to be our fault.
Probably at the basement of hotels in Baghdad, hobnobbing with foreign journalists.
Screw the Iraqi people!
Turn Baghdad to a glass parking lot!
Who cares if innocents die, it's their own f***ing fault for being born there!
Hell! Why don't we just nuke everyone! We have enough missiles to go around!
After all, Freerepublic bad-asses won't let a little radiation slow us down in our march towards complete domination.
Or maybe, just maybe, we can show why America is the most powerful nation on the planet. Not because of our technology or military might, but because of our sense of right and wrong. Because we believe that innocent life should be spared and oppressed people should live in freedom.
No, we should not blame ourselves for civilian casualities, but I am sickened when I read of people wanting civilian casualities.
Iraqi paramilitaries are using civilians as human shields, Sky News has learnt.
Militiamen facing besieging British troops outside Basra are forcing locals to march in front of them as they fire on soldiers, UK forces claim.
Up to 1,000 Iraqi irregulars are thought to be in Basra standing firm against the British troops now responsible for fighting in southern Iraq.
Emma Hurd, who is at the UK forces' base in northern Iraq, was told British troops were struggling to break the stand-off because of the tactic.
"Irregular forces are using civilians as human shields," she said.
"Men with guns advance out of the city with civilians in front of them towards the British forces.
"These civilians are being forced into this."
The men are firing on the troops and they are unable to return fire.
"The stand-off continues."
Pockets of resistance are continuing in the southern Iraqi city, which is home to some 1m people.
But British commanders insist UK forces are not about to go in and take out the paramilitaries.
Meanwhile, British forces have destroyed up to seven Iraqi tanks on the edge of Basra.
Captain Alan Massey, of the flagship aircraft carrier Ark Royal, said British light tanks, helped by small helicopter gunships and surveillance helicopters, had been battling a breakout by up to 50 Iraqi tanks.
They were trying to press southwards from the edge of the city, he said.
British forces have surrounded Basra and secured its airport.
Not one American family ought to lose their son or daughter because the Iraqi that killed them wasn't bombed because he was illegally hiding behind civilians.
Theres nothing racist about that.
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