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Air Raids Kill Shia 'Civilians'
U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city. "My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman said.
"So we shot back," he added. "Now they're no longer shooting at us."
Iraqi police said that earlier in the day a U.S. warplane strafed a house and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child.
Five ununiformed 'civilian' militia and three human shields?
AP Television News footage showed smoke rising from the home in Basra's Hananiyah neighborhood where the police said the civilians were killed. Pools of blood and a destroyed pickup truck were seen outside the home hit by the plane.

Sheik Nasir Abdul Hussein in Basra said the strikes came after midnight and were followed by gunmen shooting in the air. "The thunder of the aircraft frightened children," he said. "The sound smashed glasses, and the area was lighted by aircraft."
Earlier reports said the strikes were in response TO gunmen shooting in the air. Knowing the ROE, I know which timeline I believe.
Hope the children understood the lesson we taught that day ...
The crackdown in Basra has provoked a violent reaction — especially from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. His followers accuse rival Shiite parties in the government of trying to crush their movement before provincial elections this fall. Their anger has led to a sharp increase in attacks against American troops in Shiite areas following months of relative calm after al-Sadr declared a unilateral cease-fire last August and recently extended it for six months.

Iraq's Health Ministry, which is close to the Sadrist movement, ...
AP gets bonus points for noting that relationship
... on Saturday reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at least 500 others injured in a week of clashes and airstrikes in Sadr City and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods.
How many of these civilians were killed by errant Mehdi mortars or roadside bombs?
The U.S. military sharply disputes the claims, having said that most of those killed were militia members.
They're both militia and civilian at the same time - we saw the photos from the 'reporter' embedded with them yesterday of 'civilians' setting up a roadside bomb.
Too bad the AP hasn't learned the most basic parts of the Geneva Convention: a non-uniformed person with a rifle or bomb in his hands is not a 'civilian'.

Posted by: Glenmore 2008-03-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=235465