An Aviation Ordnanceman inventories bombs on the flight deck of USS Abraham Lincoln.
Posted on 03/27/2003 1:32:02 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Edited on 03/27/2003 1:33:46 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
U.S. Central Command suspects an Iraqi missile is to blame for the deadly strike on a crowded Baghdad market that reportedly killed 14 people and sparked accusations the U.S was targeting civilians.
As WorldNetDaily reported, an errant missile slammed into a row of buildings, which house shops on the ground floor and residential apartments above, in the northern neighborhood of Al-Shaab yesterday.
Associated Press Television News footage showed a large crater in the street, a smoldering building, burned out cars and bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting in the back of a pickup truck.
An angry crowd of several hundred people gathered in the area shouting, "Down with Bush" and "Long live Saddam."
After preliminary investigation, officials at Central Command yesterday ruled out an errant coalition airstrike as the cause.
"Coalition air forces did not target the market, nor were any bombs or missiles dropped in the Shaab district," said Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Today at a press briefing from the headquarters in Doha, Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks reitterated there was no coalition air mission in the area and said the current line of thinking is the missile was an Iraqi weapon.
Brooks explained that there was an Iraqi missile battery nearby that was firing surface-to-air missiles at coalition forces. He said Iraqis use old missile stocks, which can be unreliable, and were firing them without the use of radar in order to avoid detection by coalition forces.
"We think it's entirely possible that this may have been in fact an Iraqi missile that either went up and came down or, given the behaviors of the regime lately, this may have been a deliberate attack," he said.
An Aviation Ordnanceman inventories bombs on the flight deck of USS Abraham Lincoln. |
At yesterday's briefing, Brooks was peppered with questions about the precision of coalition bombings and accused of hiding mistakes.
"We have a very, very deliberate process for targets. It takes into account all science. It takes into account all possibilities," Brooks responded. "We only target things that have military significance."
When reporters pressed for video or the number of errant bombs dropped by coalition forces, Brooks said he didn't know the number and that there were no images of unsuccessful attacks.
He explained that the strikes have all hit within the predicted margin of error and if targets are missed in the first pass, they're sometimes hit again.
--Upon going to the site of the civilian market bombing in northern Baghdad at Shaab today, May Ying Welch noticed that enemy officials had quickly taken away sharpnel and material from the two bomb craters "created by US missiles". They were also quickly filling up the craters when she arrived. Asked why they did not leave the remnants there as proof of American bombing of civilian areas, they were told "it might be contaminated."
i.e. Why else would the Iraqi authorities gather all scrapnel and cover the hole if not to cover up the fact that it was their missle, they knew it and just wanted to get the most out making it look like it was from the USA!
/Sarcasm.
Makes sense it takes an ***hole to know a hole.
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