Family that lost 11 had been seeking refuge

Chicago Tribune ^ | 04/02/03 | Meg Laughlin

[dark_lord]

Language gap put them in peril at U.S. checkpoint

By Meg Laughlin Knight Ridder/Tribune news Published April 2, 2003

NEAR NAJAF, Iraq -- An Iraqi family that lost 11 members when U.S. soldiers opened fire as their vehicle approached a checkpoint was fleeing toward U.S. lines because they thought a leaflet dropped by American helicopters told them to "be safe," and that meant leaving their village, a survivor of the incident said Tuesday.

Bakhat Hassan--who lost his daughters, ages 2 and 5, his son, 3, his parents, two older brothers, their wives and two nieces, ages 12 and 15, in the incident Monday--said American soldiers at an earlier checkpoint had waved them through as they drove away from their village.

As they approached another checkpoint 25 miles south of Karbala, they waved again at the American soldiers.

"We were thinking these Americans want us to be safe," Hassan said through an Army translator at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital near Najaf.

The soldiers didn't wave back. They fired.

"I saw the heads of my two little girls come off," Hassan's wife, Lamea, 36, recalled numbly. She repeated in a flat, even voice: "My girls--I watched their heads come off their bodies. My son is dead."

U.S. officials initially gave the death toll as seven and reporters at the scene placed it at 10. But Hassan's father died at the Army hospital later.

[...excerpted...]

Hassan's father, in his 60s, wore his best clothes for the trip through the American lines: a pinstriped suit, "to look American," Hassan said.

"A miscommunication with civilians," said a report written Monday night by the Army, which plans to investigate.

[...excerpted...]

The Shiite family of 17 was packed in its 1974 Land Rover, so crowded that Bakhat, 35, was outside on the rear bumper hanging on to the back door.

The others were piled on one another's laps in three sets of seats. They were fleeing their farm town southeast of Karbala, where U.S. attack helicopters had fired missiles and rockets the day before.

Helicopters also had dropped leaflets on the town: a drawing of a family sitting at a table eating and smiling with a message written in Arabic.

Sgt. Stephen Furbush, an Army intelligence analyst, said the message read: "To be safe, stay put."

But Hassan said he and his father thought it just said, "Be safe." To them, that meant getting away from the helicopters firing rockets.

[...excerpted...]

[dark_lord]

Looks like unlike previous reports, it is not the case that Fedayeen packed the car with women and kids to cause a checkpoint "incident." Rather it looks like typical wartime SNAFU.

[Sunshine Sister]

I didn't think all 11 were killed.

[Larry Lucido]

It's sad, but the full responsibility for their deaths lies squarely with the homicide bombers, and those who advocate, rationalize and encourage it.

[big gray tabby]

Them and whoever didn't teach these folks to read.

[ckilmer]

Fox ran an interview yesterday that showed a prominant Shia cleric in Kuwait who said that the family had been forced to provoke the US soldiers by the Iraq secret police.

Could be the cleric was lying. But that would be a strange thing for a cleric to lie about.

[Blueflag]

This is a different event than the 'women and children' checkpoint.

[Blueflag]

The cleric was talking about the women and cildren event, not this family.

[1 spark]

I saw a military guy on FOX (i'm pretty sure it was FOX) say that warning shots were fired (in the air?)and the vehicle did not stop. Then shots were fired into the engine to get it to stop, but it kept moving forward. At that point, they shot into the vehicle.

[goodnesswins]

Don't you think if you were heading for a border you'd get out and WALK....during these times?

[Calpernia]

The left will dance all over this. Everyone should actually be ENRAGED by the Terrorist Methods of using civilians in the fashion that CREATED this incident.

[1 spark]

You're absolutely right. The homicide bombers and the regime are responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians. It can't be said enough.

[m1911]

I think desperate and frightened people do things that don't make any sense to those who view them from the calm and safety of their living rooms. This applies to both the family and the soldiers.

[Robert DeLong]

I would say that this report is the one that is false. That's my gut feeling.

[joesnuffy]

Could be the cleric was lying. But that would be a strange thing for a cleric to lie about.

What would be a normal thing for a cleric to lie about..anyway he was a muslim cleric

[jt8d]

This is tragic, but also suspicious. IMHO, bullets flying over my head, and then next slamming INTO my vehicle's engine, are both an obvious warning, and MAY BE UNDERSTOOD IN ANY LANGUAGE: STOP NOW! Period. So, why did this group continue to drive towards the check-point, even when they saw AND ACKNOWLEDGED that American soldiers were NOT WAIVING THEIR HANDS AND SMILING, but rather, were AIMING THEIR WEAPONS AND SHOUTING? How F***ING stupid can you be?

[arly]

this article is a bunch of crap.. it sounds about as truthfull as a Michael Moore documentary.

[Minty]

"Fox ran an interview yesterday that showed a prominant Shia cleric in Kuwait who said that the family had been forced to provoke the US soldiers by the Iraq secret police.

Could be the cleric was lying. But that would be a strange thing for a cleric to lie about"

Seems to me the lib paper is more likely to lie through their teeth as much as they can get away with...

[Kadric]

I know of 2 incidents being report yesterday.

1. The case of the 11 at the check point. Where procedure was followed.
2. There was a report yesterday of one similar to this but the vehicle was supposed to have been shot up by a helicopter.

So is this a new one or is this a composite of the 2 that is now being fed to the media?

[Blueflag]

It's two separate incidents! The cleric spoke to the women and children event, not the Toyota-17 event.

[dark_lord]

Well, a couple points.

(1) It is possible that these are 2 different incidents. The quotes from the father (Hassan) came from an interview at the MASH unit. So this is 1st person reporting.

(2) The source is from Knight-Ridder and printed in the Tribune. The Chicago Tribune is not, strictly speaking, a "lib" paper. They are clearly left-wing on issues like gun control, and their "letters to the editor" clearly tend to print the leftist point of view. But their war coverage has been balanced, and they are in general critical of the Daley (socialist) administration.