[Peace-discuss] this is war

[ppatton at uiuc.edu]

U.S. Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis at Party
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding
party in the remote desert near the border with Syria, killing
more than 40 people, most of them women and children, Iraqi
officials said. The U.S. military said it was investigating.

Associated Press Television News footage showed a truck
containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled
one atop the other. Several were children, one of whom had
been decapitated.

The attack occurred about 2:45 a.m. in a desert region near
the border with Syria and Jordan, according to Lt. Col. Ziyad
al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of the city of Ramadi. He said
between 42 and 45 people died, including 15 children and 10
women. Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi,
put the death toll at 45.

The area, a desolate region populated only by shepherds, is
popular with smugglers, including weapons smugglers, and the
U.S. military suspects militants use it as a route to slip in
from Syria to fight the Americans. It is under constant
surveillance by American forces.

Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said revelers had fired
volleys of gunfire into the air in a traditional wedding
celebration before the attack took place. American troops have
sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.

Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military spokesman, said the
military was investigating.

``I cannot comment on this because we have not received any
reports from our units that this has happened nor that any
were involved in such a tragedy,'' Williams wrote in an e-mail
in response to a question from The Associated Press.

``We take all these requests seriously and we have forwarded
this inquiry to the Joint Operations Center for further review
and any other information that may be available,'' Williams said.

The video footage showed mourners with shovels digging graves
over a wide dusty area in Ramadi, the provincial capital where
the bodies had been taken to obtain death certificates. A
group of men crouched and wept around one coffin.

Al-Ani, the doctor, said people at the wedding fired weapons
in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and
left. However, al-Ani said, helicopters later arrived and
attacked the area. Two houses were destroyed, he said.

``This was a wedding and the (U.S.) planes came and attacked
the people at a house. Is this the democracy and freedom that
(President) Bush has brought us?'' said a man on the
videotape, Dahham Harraj. ``There was no reason.''

Another man shown on the tape, who refused to give his name,
said the victims were at a wedding party ``and the U.S.
military planes came... and started killing everyone in the
house.''

In July 2002, Afghan officials said 48 civilians at a wedding
party were killed and 117 wounded by a U.S. airstrike in
Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. An investigative report
released by the U.S. Central Command said the airstrike was
justified because American planes had come under fire.
__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Research Scientist
Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-328-4064
homepage: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ppatton/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
__________________________________________________________________