http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5600.htm
The Americans are treating us like animals."
US Misrepresenting Casualty Counts; Beating Sheikhs in Ramadi
Dahr Jamail
01/29/04: (ICH) Yesterday in Khaldiya, 60 miles west of Baghdad, a
powerful roadside bomb exploded killing US soldiers. Iraqi civilians
were killed by US soldiers gunfire during the aftermath. However,
questions about the conflicting numbers as to the number of dead US
soldiers and Iraqi civilians remain. In a CENTCOM press release for
the incident, the US Military claims that three task force All
American soldiers were killed in the blast by the Improvised
Explosive Device (IED), and one Iraqi killed. The press release also
states that one soldier and several Iraqis were wounded.
Witnesses at the scene today told a very different story, as did
personnel at the Ramadi Hospital where the civilian Iraqi casualties
were taken. Mohammed (last name withheld), a 25 year old Iraqi man
who lives near the scene, said, I saw 12 US soldiers killed. Body
parts were everywhere. There were also at least 5 injured.
He and several other witnesses said they watched as the US vehicle
was exploded by the IED, then other soldiers opened up with gunfire,
shooting everything in sight. Hammad Naif Ermil, driving a large
truck, was shot and killed, as were other Iraqis riding in a bus
behind him that was riddled with American bullet holes.
Ali (last name withheld), an Iraqi Policeman who witnessed the
incident, said, I saw 12 dead US soldiers. They put them in black
body bags and flew them out by helicopters. Ali said, We tried to
help get the man out of the bus, but the Americans wouldnt let us. He
died because they wouldnt let us get him out.
A man who also lives near the scene of the incident, Abdul Ahkman,
said, I saw 12 US soldiers killed and flown away by their
helicopters. We want the Americans to leave. They said they would
bring us freedom, but they have only brought us death and suffering.
We will kill them all if they stay here.
Meanwhile, last weekend Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told AP News,
We believe weve got sufficient capability to maintain a reasonable
security level in the country.
We left the scene after watching young Iraqi boys holding bloody
bandages and IV bags from US medics having done emergency triage on
their wounded comrades. One young boy proudly displayed his US Army
watch from a dead US soldier. The crater from the IED blast was
several feet deep, in the median between the lanes of the highway.
We came upon the funeral procession for the truck driver who had been
killed, his coffin draped in an Iraqi flag carried somberly by many
men, crying as they carried it to the mosque, then up a small hill to
the village cemetery. One man pulls me aside from the procession and
says, The Americans are treating us like animals. They are raiding
our homes each day. They are stealing our money. At least one man
from every home here has been detained. Saddam destroyed us, but the
Americans are destroying everything we have.
Another man tells me, We want freedom. We need jobs. I am a teacher,
but I havent worked since the invasion. They promised us freedom, but
they are only giving us prison, killing, and bad treatment. Yet
another angered man says:
The US says they came for weapons of mass destruction and Saddam.
They have found no WMDs, they have Saddam, and we still suffer. We
will fight against them all the way now. They have come because of
money. They are insulting all of us. Iraqi people have the right to
resist the Americans because they are invaders. When they are
attacked, why do they always kill others who are not involved?
A few of the men tell me that Khaldiya now has one hour of
electricity per day, and a 7pm curfew. Haji, angrily tells me, I
expected the Americans to be better than this. If they are honest,
they should pull out now. They have told us over loudspeakers to stay
in our homes after this incident, and have warned us not to come out
after 7pm. Who can live like this?
After the burial of the body, we solemnly carry on to the Ramadi
Hospital. Dr. Rayid Al-Ani, the Assistant Director of the Ramadi
Hospital where the Iraqi casualties were taken, stated that three
Iraqi civilians bodies were brought to the morgue at the hospital,
and five wounded Iraqi civilians. Dr. Al-Ani said, Of the five
wounded Iraqis brought here, three have died. One is now in the
operating room, and the fifth man is upstairs suffering from three
gun shots by the Americans.
Mohammed Hammad, 36 years-old, is recovering in the hospital with gun
shots in his face, chest, and right leg. He said, I was riding in a
taxi going from Ramadi to Khaldiya when a US patrol was hit by a
roadside bomb. Then the soldiers just started shooting everywhere.
I ask him if hell try to get compensation from the Americans and he
says, I dont know, but I dont think they will give any compensation
to me. They arent giving it to anyone around here. The driver of his
taxi was killed by American gunfire, according to Mohammed Hammad.
I walk down the hall after talking with Mohammed, and meet a boy, Yas
Hammad, 14 years old, who is recovering from shrapnel wounds in his
arm, chest and foot. US soldiers had raided his parents home, and one
of them left a grenade. The next day Yas Hammad picked it up and it
exploded.
Dr. Al-Ani tells me there is a Sheikh upstairs who has been beaten by
the Americans. He takes us upstairs to talk with him. On the way he
says that since his hospital is the highest point in Ramadi, US
soldiers have been occupying the roof. He doesnt mind this, but he
does mind that they have been shooting bottles for target practice,
and this upsets his cardio patients and the elderly in his care.
Sheikh Turlki Muslu lays in his bed, nursing his wounds from being
beaten on the head, chest, shoulders and legs. This on top of also
suffering from diabetes. He sits up with a groan of pain to talk with
us:
Two weeks ago the Americans came and asked me to give them names of
resistance fighters. I dont know any resistance fighters. We were
always against Saddam here. They roughed me up some, then said they
would come back in a week and Id better have some names. They came
back a week ago, sent my family outside and locked the door. I told
them I dont know any names, so they tied my hands, put a bag over my
head, and took me away in an armored vehicle. They beat me on my
head, neck, shoulders and chest. They kicked my legs. Then they took
me home and told me they could kill me. I told them I just dont know
anyone they are looking for, because Im not in the resistance. They
said they would come back.
The Sheikh has been in the hospital since then, hoping the Americans
wont visit him again. They insist we join him and several other
Sheikhs and his friends for lunch. We sit in the hospital room
munching on chicken, rice and salads, all of them expressing their
frustration and concern. The Sheikh is in charge of 30,000 men. One
of his friends says, What are the Americans thinking? Do they think
we will not fight them now? If this happens again, how will the
Sheikh keep his men from fighting? What will his 30,000 people do
when they find out he has been beaten?
The Sheikh says he is angry with the press who he has spoken with, as
they have not told the truth about how his people are suffering,
beaten, humiliated and killed by the Americans. The Assistant Manager
of the hospital expresses this frustration as well.
We are taken to the floor beneath the Sheikhs to visit his cousin,
Muhammad Nassir Ali, who is a Sheikh, also in charge of 30,000
people. His story is almost exactly the same as that of his
cousin-detained, beaten, threatened, and now seeking refuge in the
hospital from the Americans. He lies in bed in pain, one of his feet
broken, bruises on his body.
Sheikh Nassir Ali says, The Americans should not be using force on
us. We would welcome them if they treated us with respect and
dignity. Instead, they are humiliating and infuriating us. Why are
they taking our freedom? My people are ready to do what they need to
do here. He receives over 100 visitors a day from men with solemn
looks on their faces. When we are there over 20 men wait for us to
finish so they can check on their Sheikh.
We walk down the hall and Dr. Rhami Barki, one of the doctors from
the hospital tells me, The Americans sealed of Khaldiya yesterday.
They wouldnt let anyone leave their house. What about emergency
cases? What about heart attacks? Is it acceptable for Americans to
keep people in their homes with no medical care? The entire city was
sealed from 5pm yesterday until this morning! This is a very big
problem. Where are our human rights?
Meanwhile the violence across Baghdad continues. A suicide bomber
using an ambulance detonated near a hotel frequented by westerners,
most likely contractors, just down the road from where I stay. The
usual rattling windows woke me at around 6am as the
huge blast rocked central Baghdad.
Yet the propaganda fest by the US military continues. What weve done
in the last 60 days is really taken them down, a senior military
official said, speaking of the insurgency to the Washington Post on
Jan. 23. Weve dismantled the Baghdad piece. Weve dismantled the Mosul
piece. Im not saying weve taken down the Fallujah-Ramadi piece, but
weve hammered it. A battalion commander in Tikrit said this week in
assessing the current situation. The enemy doesnt have much left.
They are desperate and flailing.
Dahr Jamail, is an independent journalist from Anchorage, Alaska,
reporting from Iraq.
Copyright: Dahr Jamail
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