Posted on 03/31/2004 7:04:44 AM PST by Charles Henrickson
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Jubilant residents dragged the charred corpses of four foreigners — one a woman, at least one an American — through the streets Wednesday and hanged them from the bridge spanning the Euphrates River. Five American soldiers died in a roadside bombing nearby.
The four foreigners were killed in a rebel ambush of their SUVs in Fallujah, a Sunni Triangle city about 35 miles west of Baghdad and scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the American occupation a year ago.
It was reminiscent of the 1993 scene in Somalia, when a mob dragged the corpse of a U.S. soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American withdrawal from the African nation.
In one of the bloodiest days for the U.S. military this year, five 1st Infantry Division soldiers died when their military vehicle ran over a bomb in a separate incident 12 miles to the northwest, among the reed-lined roads running through some of Iraq's richest farmland.
Residents said the bomb attack occurred in Malahma, 12 miles northwest of Fallujah, where anti-U.S. insurgents are active. U.S. Marines operate in the area, but it was unclear whether the slain troops were Marines.
Chanting "Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans," residents cheered after the grisly assault on two four-wheel-drive civilian vehicles, which left both in flames. Others chanted, "We sacrifice our blood and souls for Islam."
Associated Press Television News pictures showed one man beating a charred corpse with a metal pole. Others tied a yellow rope to a body, hooked it to a car and dragged it down the main street of town. Two blackened and mangled corpses were hung from a green iron bridge across the Euphrates.
"The people of Fallujah hanged some of the bodies on the old bridge like slaughtered sheep," resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Some of the corpses were dismembered, he said.
Beneath the bodies, a man held a printed sign with a skull and crossbones and the phrase "Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans."
APTN showed the charred remains of three slain men. Some were wearing flak jackets, said resident Safa Mohammedi.
One resident displayed what appeared to be dog tags taken from one body. Residents also said there were weapons in the targeted cars. APTN showed one American passport near a body and a U.S. Department of Defense identification card belonging to another man.
U.S. military officials in Washington said the situation was still confused but they did not think the victims were American soldiers and believed the SUVs were not American military vehicles.
Witnesses said the two vehicles were attacked with small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.
Hours after the attack, the city was quiet. No U.S. troops or Iraqi police were seen in the area.
Fallujah is in the so-called Sunni Triangle, where support for Saddam Hussein was strong and rebels often carry out attacks against American forces.
In nearby Ramadi, insurgents threw a grenade at a government building and Iraqi security forces returned fire Wednesday, witnesses said. It was not clear if there were casualties.
Also in Ramadi, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy, witnesses said. U.S. officials in Baghdad could not confirm the attack.
On Tuesday in Ramadi, one U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a roadside bombing, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.
Northeast of Baghdad, in the city of Baqouba on Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew up explosives in his car when he was near a convoy of government vehicles, wounding 14 Iraqis and killing himself, officials said.
The attacked convoy is normally used to transport the Diala provincial governor, Abdullah al-Joubori, but he was elsewhere at the time, said police Col. Ali Hossein.
On Tuesday, a suicide bombing outside the house of a police chief in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed the attacker and wounded seven others.
A bomb exploded late Tuesday in a movie theater that had closed for the night. Two bystanders were wounded by flying glass, said its owner, Ghani Mohammed.
The latest violence came two days after Carina Perelli, the head of a U.N. electoral team, said better security is vital if Iraq wants to hold elections by a Jan. 31 deadline. The polls are scheduled to follow a June 30 transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.
Top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said Tuesday he had appointed 21 anti-corruption inspectors general to government departments to try to prevent fraud. More will be named in coming days, he said.
The inspectors will work with two other newly formed, independent agencies. Together, they will "form an integrated approach intended to combat corruption at every level of government across the country," Bremer said.
Children point to a body part, tied to a brick and hanging from a telephone cable
Thats what I was told. That were were liberators and Iraqis now loved American's. These people are beyond disgusting and morbid. That POS country isn't worth the life of one single American.
Is it?
i.e.,
Whether the USA can actually democratize and civilize these savage barbarians, bringing them into Western Civilization, through the often flawed concept of "nation building" which we are now no doubt FULLY engaged in, in the midst of a hot guerilla war.
and,
whether the USA, it's media and general public, are emotionally and strategically well-equipped in our Western Benevolent Mindset, to handle this kind of stuff, and really will know what to do when confronted with these and other very skillful (if not dastardly) professional act(s) of PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE.
We may really need to send in some boys who work on the dark side of things, to do some acts of vengeance, very nasty acts under cover of darkness perhaps, and start this by tracking down the young Iraqi demonstrators in Fallujah whose faces are clearly displayed at the Mutilation Party they had today over there.
(snicker) Like that will happen.
Diversity reigns. Wouldn't want to be insensitive to another culture's "beliefs" now would we?
What? Who the hell you think was dragging these American's through the streets and hanging their dead bodies from bridges?
Prayers for civilians in Iraq?
Sheeeeeet.......
We need to level Fallujah to set a precedent for others. Everytime an event like this goes by without being dealt with properly, it causes peoples moral to drop (including our soldiers in Iraq)!
If the President wants us to keep our chins up then we need to see animal's like this dealt with! We have let things like this go unchecked on several occasions throughout our short existence of a country, and every time it has led to low moral and loss of hope.
From an very, very Angry American!
Sorry to be negative about it, but I think the mindset of vast segments of the US electorate will be just to walk away from all the damn Middle Eastern mess....regardless of perhaps the larger negative geopolitical ramifications for us and the World of doing just that.
I know their playbook. You can bet the Democrats will demogogue on this one heavily, and quite to their benefit, they will be narrow, power-hungry political partisans FIRST, and long term, strategic, team-playing patriotos SECOND.
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