US Troops Accused Of
Killing 40 At Iraqi Wedding
ChannelNewsAsia.com
5-19-4
BAGHDAD (AFP) -- US troops were accused of killing 40 people at a
wedding in an Iraqi desert town, while the Pentagon said air strikes
were conducted on a house used by foreign fighters near the Syrian
border.
The attack occurred at a time when the coalition is reeling from a
prison abuse scandal in which a US soldier was jailed for one year in
the first court martial over the affair.
Pan-Arab satellite television Al-Arabiya and a man who said he
witnessed the incident said US planes targeted the wedding celebration
in the Makreddin village in the Qaim region.
Al-Arabiya, which aired footage of bodies wrapped in blankets and
loaded on trucks, said the dead included women and children and quoted
witnesses as saying the aircraft also destroyed other houses in the
village.
Pentagon officials said they had no information the attack, but
reported that US forces had raided a suspected safe house for foreign
fighters in the open desert near the Syrian border at 3:00 am (1100
GMT Tuesday).
"During the operation, the coalition forces came under hostile fire,
and returned fire," he said.
"Coalition forces on the ground recovered a large amount of Iraqi and
Syrian currency, foreign passports and sophisticated communications
equipment."
The raid came hours before the first Baghdad court martial Wednesday
over the US prison abuse scandal, at which soldier Jeremy Sivits was
sentenced to a maximum 12-month jail term.
Other courts martial are to follow but so far only low-ranking
soldiers have been charged despite allegations that senior US officers
were aware of the practice.
Sivits was reduced from the rank of specialist and will receive the
salary of a private while serving his prison term before being
discharged from the army.
He pleaded guilty to charges relating to the abuse and humiliation of
Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad in November.
Sivits admitted being involved in a conspiracy to pile inmates on top
of each other in a pyramid but denied having taken any photos on that
occasion.
In a graphic description of the events, Sivits told the court that he
saw some seven detainees on the floor getting "stomped on" by two
other soldiers.
"I led the detainee in and pushed him into the pile," he told the
court in response to questioning from Judge Colonel James Pohl.
Another three soldiers appeared in the makeshift courtroom for a
pre-trial hearing earlier in the day though no date was set for their
courts martial.
Pohl ordered Sergeant Javal Davis, 26, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick,
37, and Specialist Charles Graner, 35, to return on June 21 for
another hearing.
Davis faces five charges, including maltreatment of detainees, notably
piling them into a heap and jumping on them.
Frederick faces six charges that include punching a detainee in a way
that was "likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm". Graner
faces seven charges including assaulting detainees and dereliction of
duty.
The pictures of grinning US soldiers posing by a heap of naked Iraqi
men revealed last month sparked worldwide outrage.
Additional pictures described as much worse -- shown to US lawmakers
-- have not been made public, feeding allegations that responsibility
for the abuse went much higher up the military and political chain of
command.
In Washington, General John Abizaid, head of US Central Command, and
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US forces in Iraq,
answered before the Senate Armed Forces Committee over the outrage
over Abu Ghraib.
"We have suffered a setback," Abizaid told the panel. "I accept
responsibility for that setback."
"From evidence already gathered, we believe that systemic problems
existed at the prison that may have contributed to events there,"
Abizaid went on.
The coalition and the US administration, which have come under heavy
fire over the scandal, have pointed to the courts martial as evidence
that they are determined to punish anyone involved in mistreating
prisoners.
As attention centered on the case tried in Baghdad, new clashes were
reported elsewhere in Iraq.
A US soldier was killed when a gunman hiding in a cemetery fired on a
patrol in Miqdadiya, north of Baghdad, and a British civilian worker
was shot and killed while driving between the northern cities of Mosul
and Arbil.
Both attacks Tuesday were only reported Wednesday by the US military
and the British Foreign Office respectively.
In the central city of Karbala, seven Iraqis were killed and 14
wounded in nearly 24 hours of heavy clashes between coalition troops
and militiamen loyal to firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr,
hospital sources said.
Meanwhile, a burial service was held late Wednesday in the holy city
of Najaf for Ezzedine Salim, the leader of the US-backed Governing
Council, who was killed in a car bomb Monday outside the coalition
headquarters.
A group headed by Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi claimed
responsibility for the attack, a Saudi newspaper reported, even though
another movement previously said it had carried out the suicide car
bombing.
Copyright © 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/85873/1/.html
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| User: "Jean Guernon" |
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| Title: Re: US kills Foreign Fighters party |
20 May 2004 10:11:22 AM |
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a écrit:
US Troops Accused Of
Killing 40 At Iraqi Wedding
This is the usual ***** lies by terrorists ***** lickers.
What they found was weapons, no children.
Cash and foreign passports. Alqaeda smuggled by Syria into Iraq.
Fucking assholes like Al Jazirah and you should be sued.
J.
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| User: "ex" |
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| Title: Re: US kills Foreign Fighters party |
20 May 2004 03:22:29 PM |
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"Jean Guernon" <jguernon@globetrotter.net> wrote in message
news:uU3rc.4908080$iA2.570537@news.easynews.com...
Zak@home.com a écrit:
US Troops Accused Of
Killing 40 At Iraqi Wedding
This is the usual ***** lies by terrorists ***** lickers.
What they found was weapons, no children.
Cash and foreign passports. Alqaeda smuggled by Syria into Iraq.
Fucking assholes like Al Jazirah and you should be sued.
J.
Actually it's still not clear what happened. The U.S. Army did say they used
an attack 'copter along the Syrian border .. which may have been near where
the wedding had taken place.
I don't know if firing weapons is a standard wedding custom ( shotgun
wedding comes to mind ).
We'll have to wait and see. The U.S. was quick to deny it, but they also
left the door open.
-ex
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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| User: "Woodswun" |
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| Title: Re: US kills Foreign Fighters party |
20 May 2004 06:39:40 PM |
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In article <hs8rc.75138$325.1585701@news20.bellglobal.com>, "ex" <ex@ex.com> wrote:
"Jean Guernon" <jguernon@globetrotter.net> wrote in message
news:uU3rc.4908080$iA2.570537@news.easynews.com...
Zak@home.com a écrit:
US Troops Accused Of
Killing 40 At Iraqi Wedding
This is the usual ***** lies by terrorists ***** lickers.
What they found was weapons, no children.
Cash and foreign passports. Alqaeda smuggled by Syria into Iraq.
Fucking assholes like Al Jazirah and you should be sued.
J.
Actually it's still not clear what happened. The U.S. Army did say they used
an attack 'copter along the Syrian border .. which may have been near where
the wedding had taken place.
I don't know if firing weapons is a standard wedding custom ( shotgun
wedding comes to mind ).
Yes, I believe I've heard previously that firing shots into the air is a common
thing to do during a wedding celebration. (This was before I heard about this
attack).
We'll have to wait and see. The U.S. was quick to deny it, but they also
left the door open.
If it was a wedding party, I'm sure the US was not aware of it. I would say
that *IF* it was a wedding, they had some bad intelligence. (In fact, given
that bad PR for the US is "good" for the insurgents, I wouldn't be at all
surprised if someone deliberately gave the US bad intelligence just so there
would be a big splash about us firing on a wedding party).
At this point, we don't know ~what~ was going on.
Woods
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| User: "Jean Guernon" |
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| Title: Re: US kills Foreign Fighters party |
20 May 2004 04:41:57 PM |
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ex a écrit:
"Jean Guernon" <jguernon@globetrotter.net> wrote in message
news:uU3rc.4908080$iA2.570537@news.easynews.com...
Zak@home.com a écrit:
US Troops Accused Of
Killing 40 At Iraqi Wedding
This is the usual ***** lies by terrorists ***** lickers.
What they found was weapons, no children.
Cash and foreign passports. Alqaeda smuggled by Syria into Iraq.
Fucking assholes like Al Jazirah and you should be sued.
J.
Actually it's still not clear what happened. The U.S. Army did say they used
an attack 'copter along the Syrian border .. which may have been near where
the wedding had taken place.
I don't know if firing weapons is a standard wedding custom ( shotgun
wedding comes to mind ).
We'll have to wait and see. The U.S. was quick to deny it, but they also
left the door open.
-ex
It is a custom. but they don't target the army. There was a mistake that
happened in Afghanistan because of this. But not this time. Euronews channels
all seem to disbelieve the US as usual, doesn't make them (the US) wrong. This
was a long time prepared operation, it cannot have been what the Iraqi say it
was... Of course because of the unfortunate precedent in Afghanistan the Euro
media will make the parallel, since that is what Al Jazirah would feed them of
course.
Anyway, yes, let's see the next few days, it will become clearer.
J.
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| User: "ex" |
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| Title: Re: US kills Foreign Fighters party |
20 May 2004 06:08:50 PM |
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"Jean Guernon" <jguernon@globetrotter.net> wrote in message
news:FC9rc.15785572$Id.2614833@news.easynews.com...
ex a écrit:
"Jean Guernon" <jguernon@globetrotter.net> wrote in message
news:uU3rc.4908080$iA2.570537@news.easynews.com...
Zak@home.com a écrit:
US Troops Accused Of
Killing 40 At Iraqi Wedding
This is the usual ***** lies by terrorists ***** lickers.
What they found was weapons, no children.
Cash and foreign passports. Alqaeda smuggled by Syria into Iraq.
Fucking assholes like Al Jazirah and you should be sued.
J.
Actually it's still not clear what happened. The U.S. Army did say they
used
an attack 'copter along the Syrian border .. which may have been near
where
the wedding had taken place.
I don't know if firing weapons is a standard wedding custom ( shotgun
wedding comes to mind ).
We'll have to wait and see. The U.S. was quick to deny it, but they also
left the door open.
-ex
It is a custom. but they don't target the army. There was a mistake that
happened in Afghanistan because of this. But not this time. Euronews
channels
all seem to disbelieve the US as usual, doesn't make them (the US) wrong.
This
was a long time prepared operation, it cannot have been what the Iraqi say
it
was... Of course because of the unfortunate precedent in Afghanistan the
Euro
media will make the parallel, since that is what Al Jazirah would feed
them of
course.
Anyway, yes, let's see the next few days, it will become clearer.
That's it ... wait and see. The army is going to have put some investigators
in the area to see just what was shot up ... if they took out a legitimate
target there should be something left of them somewhere ... but something
seems to have gone wrong.
-ex
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.681 / Virus Database: 443 - Release Date: 5/10/04
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