US BOMB WEDDING IN IRAQ!
Goliath | 21.05.2004 10:55
Iraqis have been burying more of the victims of a US air strike which they said hit a wedding party.
THEY EVEN ADMIT THIS WAS SOURCED FROM THEIR (FOOLPROOF??) INTELLIGENCE -WELL, WE ALL KNOW ABOUT US MILITARY INTELLIGENCE!!
There is gunfire, this time in mourning, as the coffins carrying two musicians are brought back to Baghdad for burial.
Relatives say they had been performing at a wedding close to the Syrian border.
The celebrations ended in dozens of deaths, including those of the bride and groom, they say.
Firing in the air is common at both weddings and funerals in Iraq. Many thought the US military must have mistaken that for hostile fire in the village of Makr al-Deeb.
'Raining missiles'
Atiya, 13, cannot believe what has happened to her father, Hussein Ali, who is well known in the area for singing at weddings.
She shows a picture of him in an orange shirt, crooning into a microphone.
His friends and neighbours gather in a mourning tent set up outside the family home. Hussein's cousin Bassim explains what happened - he is one of the few surviving witnesses.
He tells how he hid in wheat as American planes rained missiles on the house where the wedding celebrations were.
The guests had gone to bed early, he says, after they saw US surveillance planes flying over the area earlier in the night.
Most were sleeping when the missiles struck.
'Significant intelligence'
The US military initially said it had conducted an operation against a safe house for suspected foreign militants, whom the Americans say slip across the border.
It has now announced it is launching an investigation.
But there was no apology from Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt on Thursday - and no acknowledgement that a mistake may have been made.
"It is important to understand that this operation was not something that just fell out of the sky," he said.
"We had significant intelligence that caused us to conduct a military operation into the middle of the desert, a relatively barren area.
"We had a group of people there - not Bedouin, they would appear to have been town dwellers.
"We saw four by fours, jewellery - this is one of those routes that we have watched for a long time."
'Public relations disaster'
But that will not convince the Ali family as they mourn - or many other Iraqis.
Whatever the truth of why the Americans hit Makr al-Deeb, it has been a public relations disaster.
The images of graves being dug in the desert and the shrouded bodies of dead children are being shown on television around the Arab world.
It is another setback to America's image that it can do without.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3733797.stm
There is gunfire, this time in mourning, as the coffins carrying two musicians are brought back to Baghdad for burial.
Relatives say they had been performing at a wedding close to the Syrian border.
The celebrations ended in dozens of deaths, including those of the bride and groom, they say.
Firing in the air is common at both weddings and funerals in Iraq. Many thought the US military must have mistaken that for hostile fire in the village of Makr al-Deeb.
'Raining missiles'
Atiya, 13, cannot believe what has happened to her father, Hussein Ali, who is well known in the area for singing at weddings.
She shows a picture of him in an orange shirt, crooning into a microphone.
His friends and neighbours gather in a mourning tent set up outside the family home. Hussein's cousin Bassim explains what happened - he is one of the few surviving witnesses.
He tells how he hid in wheat as American planes rained missiles on the house where the wedding celebrations were.
The guests had gone to bed early, he says, after they saw US surveillance planes flying over the area earlier in the night.
Most were sleeping when the missiles struck.
'Significant intelligence'
The US military initially said it had conducted an operation against a safe house for suspected foreign militants, whom the Americans say slip across the border.
It has now announced it is launching an investigation.
But there was no apology from Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt on Thursday - and no acknowledgement that a mistake may have been made.
"It is important to understand that this operation was not something that just fell out of the sky," he said.
"We had significant intelligence that caused us to conduct a military operation into the middle of the desert, a relatively barren area.
"We had a group of people there - not Bedouin, they would appear to have been town dwellers.
"We saw four by fours, jewellery - this is one of those routes that we have watched for a long time."
'Public relations disaster'
But that will not convince the Ali family as they mourn - or many other Iraqis.
Whatever the truth of why the Americans hit Makr al-Deeb, it has been a public relations disaster.
The images of graves being dug in the desert and the shrouded bodies of dead children are being shown on television around the Arab world.
It is another setback to America's image that it can do without.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3733797.stm
Goliath