Iraqi wedding celebration turns into gun battle

ananova.com ^ | 9 18 03 | ananova

[freepatriot32]

Ananova:

Iraqi wedding celebration turns into gun battle

US soldiers have killed a 14-year-old Iraqi boy and injured six others after hearing gunfire which was part of a wedding celebration.

Neighbours in Fallujah said the incident started after wedding guests fired guns into the air to celebrate.

A passing US military patrol opened fire believing it was under attack.

Adel Hmood said the Americans opened fire in a circle around themselves. He said the dead boy was on his way to buy cigarettes when he was killed.

Bullet holes in homes and buildings in the area suggested there was heavy firing by the Americans.

The military could not be reached for comment because of communications problems in Baghdad.

Last week American soldiers mistakenly opened fire on Iraqi police cars in Fallujah, killing eight Iraqi officers.

The military has apologised for the friendly fire incident.

© Associated Press

Story filed: 11:47 Thursday 18th September 2003

[DannyTN]

"Yes, do it for the chiiiiiiillllldrrrrreeeen! "

• Iraq is not America.
• It is a martial law situation.
• People are dying.
• It is a propaganda war for the hearts of the Iraqi people and that removes one tool of the enemy.
• It is our boys that are being shot at.
• Iraqi children are being put in harm's way by such unnecessary antics, if there is any truth to them at all.

  But you can't see the difference can you? You think we OWE the Iraqi people the same freedoms that we have. And we OWE them right now, not after the country is stablized.

[w1andsodidwe]

you should have heard the guns go off on my block on VJ Day 1945.

Sorry I missed it. Unfortunately that was a couple years before I was born.

[DannyTN]

"Americans used to celebrate shooting guns into the air, too; then ... along came liberalism. "

When I was a kid we were taught gun saftey, including

• That a rifle bullet randomly fired can travel a mile or more and can kill someone.
• That a gun's primary purpose was to kill. And that a gun was a good thing if you were putting food on the table or defending yourself or others.

You think maybe it was just common sense that stopped us from firing guns in the air and not liberalism.

[adam_az]

No, I agree with you that it is a totally different situation, and that people should not be shooting firearms in the air under martial law unless they want to be thought of as a combatant... Especially because the enemy combatants don't wear uniforms and so look just like anyone else. Even if it LOOKS like a wedding party and the guests pull out kalishnikovs and start shooting - it could be a setup.

I was making fun of US gun "control" advocates, not the idea of arms control in a conquered country.

Sorry for the confusion!

[DannyTN]

Glad you clarified. We agree.

[mikegi]

Loved that video. It appeared to take quite a while between firing the gun and the impact. It sounded like they would fire then someone would shout "GUN READY", then many seconds later you'd see the explosion. Also, what was the cannon being fired the most? There seemed to be numerous smaller explosions and an occasional large explosion.

[Warren]

Well, the way I heard this story was:
Iraqi gun battle turns into wedding celebration.

[sheik yerbouty]

Depriving them of receiving a J DAM is not henerous!

[DannyTN]

"Iraqi gun battle turns into wedding celebration. "

Do they have shotgun weddings over there?

[Tunehead54]

Wow! I'm glad I'm on our side! Do you know the background on this video?

---

[LizardQueen]

Why don't these people just throw rice, like sane people do?

LQ

[luck of the irish]

the ac130 spectre:

two M61 20mm Vulcan cannons "this is my guess"
with 3,000 rounds
one L60 40mm Bofors cannon
with 256 rounds
one M102 105mm howitzer
with 100 rounds

other info found here :
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/ac-130.htm

[luck of the irish]

"Wow! I'm glad I'm on our side! Do you know the background on this video? "

Long story but here is the short version..
I was feeling a bit depressed and felt like we weren’t doing enough to the enemy (at this time Afghanistan) and started to search for footage. This was a mountain raid in Afghanistan it cheered me up. I thank god that we have a president in office as great as BUSH!! God knows Gore would have sat the terrorist down for story time. :)

[Flint]

Why don't these people just throw rice, like sane people do?

I thought everyone knew that! Rice kills birds when they eat it and it swells up in their stomach. We wouldn't want the birds in Iraq exposed to this hazard, now would we?

[DannyTN]

"Rice kills birds when they eat it and it swells up in their stomach."

Wondering how Birds in China cope with massive rice fields set me to thinking that maybe this is just an old wives tail. So I checked in with Cecil to see what he thought.

Straight Dope on Wedding Rice