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40+ Darwin Awards Handed Out In Iraq
Before someone gets on my case for being ’insensitive’, note that the US military has bent over backwards in ways never seen before when conducting combat operations. What I find deplorable is a steadfast refusal by Iraqis to change their customs in order to help prevent tragedies like this. LARGE grain of salt (noted in italics - Ed.) Link via The Corner, NRO
U.S. Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis at Party
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party early Wednesday in western Iraq, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating. Lt. Col Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of the city of Ramadi, said between 42 and 45 people died in the attack, which took place about 2:45 a.m. in a remote desert area near the border with Syria and Jordan. He said those killed included 15 children and 10 women.
I wonder how near the border this place is?
At 3 in the morning?
Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45. Associated Press Television News obtained videotape showing a truck containing bodies of those allegedly killed. About a dozen bodies, one without a head, could be clearly seen. but it appeared that bodies were piled on top of each other and a clear count was not possible. Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said partygoers had fired into the air in a traditional wedding celebration. American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.
Is it me or do the people organizing Arab wedding parties have an obligation to notify someone (local cops / US military) if they’re going to do something like this, so they don’t draw a military response? Was there anything else fired, like RPG’s?
"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," Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military spokesman, 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. A group of men crouched and wept around one coffin. Al-Ani said people at the wedding fired weapons in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and left. However, al-Ani said, helicopters attacked the area at about 3 a.m. Two houses were destroyed, he said. U.S. troops took the bodies and the wounded in a truck to Rutba hospital, 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."
Other than the release of a few hundred rounds of ammo, you mean.
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."
The first paragraph specifically mentions a helicopter; paragraph 10 mentions them in the plural; can you tell the diffo between a plane and a couple of choppers? Hence my skepticism.
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.
See what I mean?

Posted by: Raj 2004-05-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=33441