|
U.S. Troops Kill Iraqis in Falluja ; Guerrillas Attack Rasheed Hotel
EFL/FU - Iraq Roundup via Rooters - watch the spin
Iraqi police said U.S. troops shot dead four civilians in the volatile town of Falluja, and guerrillas fired grenades at a Baghdad hotel on Saturday housing senior officials with the U.S.-led occupation forces.
| Okay. That's two facts... |
U.S. reconstruction efforts have been hampered by persistent guerrilla attacks and, after an appeal for foreign help fell on deaf ears, Washington activated 10,000 National Guard troops on Friday for Iraq duty and put another 5,000 on standby.
| That paragraph has nothing to do with the corpses in the first paragraph... |
The U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said it was too early to know how much other countries would help in rebuilding Iraq, devastated by two wars and more than a decade of economic sanctions. President Bush has asked Congress for about $20 billion for the job but some lawmakers and aides suggested foreign countries might donate only about $2 billion. "Letâs wait and see what we get," Bremer told reporters in Washington. A donors conference is set for Madrid in October.
| Nice to know, but nothing to do with corpses and there won't be any facts until sometime next month... |
Since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fell in April, guerrilla attacks have persisted on U.S. and British troops, and Iraqis have complained of the slow pace of restoring basic services.
| Two statements of the obvious. If you want to make a real intellectual jump, you might try connecting the two... |
The turmoil was expected to fuel protests on Saturday in cities around the world, with demonstrators angered over the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction, cited by the United States and Britain as the reason for the pre-emptive war.
| Which turmoil? The corpses in Fallujah? Or the background noise of guerrilla attacks? Why are the demonstrators so angered over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction? Aren't they the same ones who were saying their either weren't there or that they weren't dangerous? |
It would be the first major protest in Britain and most of the other cities since the war ended. In London, up to 100,000 demonstrators were expected to march, organizers said, and vowed more protests when Bush visits in November.
| Here's an item that'd make an interesting news story: how many of the demonstrators, especially the organizers, are involved with each and every similar demonstration everyplace? Where do they get the money to fly from country to country and operate papier machè puppets? |
In Iraq, more than 150,000 U.S. and British soldiers have struggled to bring stability to the countryâs 26 million people.
| Okay. That's even more than the number of people expected to demonstrate in London. What's it have to do with them? What's it have to do with the corpses in the first paragraph? |
Explosions were heard across Baghdad early on Saturday and residents near the al-Rashid hotel said they were woken by three thunderous bangs.
"Fatimah! What was that?"
"It was a thunderous bang, Mahmoud. Go back to sleep." |
The hotel is part of a large complex on the west bank of the Tigris river that has been taken over by the U.S.-led occupation authority. U.S. officials said three grenades were fired at the hotel, one hitting a wall, but there were no casualties. The hotel houses U.S. military and civilian staff.
| Bet the bad guys beat the hell out of that wall, though... |
In Falluja, west of Baghdad, police said three men and a woman from the same family were killed when U.S. soldiers fired at their car on a road just outside the town.
| Now we're back to the corpses in the first paragraph... |
The U.S. military confirmed the Friday night incident but said two Iraqis were killed when their car ran a checkpoint.
Fallujaâs burned the "free run thru a checkpoint" goodwill
Angry residents chanting anti-American slogans flocked to a nearby hospital where Reuters television footage showed four corpses and several wounded. Falluja is about 50 km (30 miles) from Baghdad, in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" where resistance to the occupation is strongest.
| Presumably the Iraqis know that, even as they load Mom and the kids and Grampaw and the puppies and kittens and baby ducks into the car for a midnight drive, speeding past checkpoints with gay abandon... |
Guerrilla activity across Iraq has killed 80 U.S. soldiers since Washington declared major combat operations over on May 1.
| How many Iraqis has it killed? How many Syrians, Yemenis and Paleos has it killed? |
U.S. officials have said foreigners coming to Iraq to fight U.S. and British forces had become a major "terrorist" problem
| But they weren't the ones bumped off running the checkpoint at Fallujah. Or were they? Rooters never gets around to saying... |
Posted by: Frank G 2003-09-27 |
