http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=28538
BAGHDAD,
Iraq - A U.S. aircraft fired on a house in the desert near the
Syrian border Wednesday, and Iraqi officials said more than 40 people were
killed, including children. The U.S. military said the target was a
suspected safehouse for foreign fighters from Syria, but Iraqis said a
helicopter had attacked a wedding party.
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 was decapitated. The body of a girl who appeared
to be less than 5 years of age lay in a white sheet, her legs riddled with
wounds and her dress soaked in blood.
The attack happened 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 Ramadi, the provincial capital about 250 miles to the east.
He said 42 to 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.
In a statement, the U.S. Central Command said coalition forces
conducted a military operation at 3 a.m. against a ``suspected foreign
fighter safe house'' in the open desert, about 50 miles southwest of
Husaybah and 15 miles from the Syrian border.
The coalition troops came under hostile fire and ``close air
support was provided,'' the statement said. The troops recovered weapons,
Iraqi and Syrian currency, some passports and some satellite communications
gear, it said.
APTN video footage showed mourners with shovels digging graves over
a wide dusty area in Ramadi, the provincial capital where bodies of the dead
had been taken to obtain death certificates. A group of men crouched and
wept around one coffin.
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.
Al-Ani, the doctor, said American troops came to investigate the
gunfire 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.''
Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military spokesman, said earlier that
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 strike, widely reported in Iraq and the Middle East as an
attack on a wedding party, comes at a time when American prestige is under
fire as the United States tries to stabilize this country before the June 30
transfer of sovereignty are foundering.
Anti-American sentiment has risen following last month's bloody
Marine siege of Fallujah, a Shiite Muslim uprising and the scandal over
treatment of Iraqi detainees at
Abu Ghraib prison.
``Many Iraqis have been killed so far'' during the occupation, said
Adnan Pachachi, one of the most pro-American figures on the
Iraqi Governing Council. He said Iraqis ``hope that these acts,
from all parties, come to an end because the victims are Iraqis.''
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.
http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=28538
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