Posted on 04/07/2003 6:24:55 AM PDT by jordan8
They carried the bodies of the children out first. There was a girl of about 12, whom the Marines wrapped in her black abaya cloak.
Next off the shattered minibus was her brother, a boy of about four, whom the Marines covered in a sports jacket. A sister, about six years old, had fallen between the seats. They placed her beside her siblings on a blanket.
The children's mother and grandfather also died on the bus late Friday night when they failed to stop at a Marine roadblock while fleeing Baghdad. Four other Iraqis also died trying to speed past in other vehicles.
It was a horrible night for Iraqi and American alike.
The Marines manning the roadblocks near Baghdad were exhausted after a harrowing day of combat.
In recent days, US soldiers manning other checkpoints had been killed in suicide bombings. Even as the vehicles were trying to rush through this roadblock, three 122 mm rockets landed around the Marines' command post.
The Iraqis trying to flee Baghdad in the night left behind a city quaking with bomb blasts. They ran straight into the tremendous firepower of three Marine tank companies and one infantry company.
The Marines fired warning shots, but six of the cars, trucks and a minibus kept coming.
Nearly 200 people survived their attempts to get past the intersection. Uncertain what to do with them, the Marines kept them prisoner overnight in a row of shop fronts.
The Iraqis were wild with fear.
"Are they going to shoot us now?" one man in a brown robe asked the Kuwaiti translator travelling with the 2nd Tank Battalion.
After it was all over, no one doubted that the minibus had carried anything other than a frightened family.
There were nine bullet holes in the windshield in front of the driver's seat; many of the other windows were blown out by weapons fire.
"A lot of this was uncalled for," said a Navy hospital corpsman helping to remove the bodies, who refused to identify himself.
"They weren't stopping, true. But they should have figured out another method. I understand why they needed to do it, but I don't think this much firepower was needed to resolve the issue."
In the heat on Saturday, grief-stricken relatives, their clothes stained with blood, begged the Marines to let them pray over their dead.
"Please, please," sobbed an Iraqi man who had been riding in the minivan. "My sister. Her babies. My father."
Another older man begged to see the body of his son, who had kept on driving as the Marines fired at the road in front of his car.
After recovering the bodies from the minibus, the Marines allowed the relatives to see them. Then the Marines buried them in a common grave on the side of the road.
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Oehl, commander of the 2nd Tank Battalion, warned his officers that the Iraqi regime might try to gain propaganda victories by compelling civilians to run roadblocks.
He ordered Marine engineers to build earthen obstacles across the highways to stop any speeding vehicles.
The minibus was travelling in a three-vehicle convoy with a dump truck in the lead and a big tractor-trailer bringing up the rear. It was about 10pm Friday local time.
The Marines with Fox Infantry Company were still trying to pull people from a Toyota sedan that had challenged their roadblock.
"The lead vehicle looked like a military truck, and it wouldn't stop," said Captain Terry Johnson, the company's commanding officer.
"We fired seven tracer rounds in front of it, but it accelerated."
A Marine sniper took out the truck driver with a single shot. The truck swerved, flipped on its side, and slid over an earthen mound.
"Right on the heels of it, that bus was going full speed," Captain Johnson said. "So we engaged. It's just a shame. I don't know why they didn't stop."
KRT
In my humble opinion this part of the article is a damn lie. That Navy Corpman has been patching up or sending to the morgue Americans as a result of suicide bombers. He sure as hell would not have said the above. I think the reporter is a damned liar.
Friday news being rereported on Sunday, far as I can tell. They'll keep retelling this until they are sure everyone has heard about it several times and convinced there were several incidents You won't hear much more from the Imman who thought the family had been threatened with death if they didn't try to run the blockade.
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