Airstrikes in Iraq: 20 civilians killed, children as young as 11
cw via reuters | 17.10.2005 23:38
U.S. strikes militants as Iraq counts vote
By Andrew Quinn
BAGHDAD, Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships killed about 70 suspected militants near the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, the military said on Monday, and a landmark referendum appeared to have backed a new constitution.
Ramadi police said about 20 of those killed in the U.S. strikes were civilians, including some children who had gathered around the wreckage of a U.S. military vehicle. But the U.S. military said it believed they were all "terrorists".
Election officials slowly counted up to 10 million ballots from Saturday's referendum, with partial results pointing to a clear win for a charter Washington hopes will help establish Iraq as a stable democracy able to do without U.S. troops.
Movement of ballot boxes to the Baghdad counting centre was complicated by a sandstorm across much of Iraq which grounded helicopters and prevented any transport of boxes by air.
Opponents of the constitution in the Sunni Arab minority complained of fraud and questioned the time taken for the count.
The Electoral Commission, where officials indicate privately that the charter is all but ratified, said all was in order but very high local votes, both "Yes" and "No", of up to 80 or 90 percent had to be audited in line with international practice.
The violence in Ramadi, a rebellious city about 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, highlighted the challenge posed by Sunni Arab insurgents opposed to the U.S.-backed constitution.
Few people in Ramadi voted, yet for the first time, many Sunnis elsewhere in Iraq took part in the referendum, even if a large majority of them voted "No", provisional figures show.
Iraqis digested the news that the constitution had probably passed, with some hailing it as a good sign and others warning it could push the country closer to complete breakdown.
"If the constitution passes without consideration for the voters who said 'No', it will lead to a sectarian war," said Faisal Houmud, 37, a merchant in the Sunni bastion of Falluja.
Sunni politicians were divided on the issue but several conceded that the constitution would come into force come what may. They would thus focus their energies on an election on Dec. 15 to boost their power to amend it in parliament.
U.S. President George W. Bush hailed the vote, which went off amid tight security and almost without bloodshed in the absence of insurgent attacks the U.S. military had predicted.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, however, said the result showed divisions ran deep and violence might continue:
"We had hoped that the constitutional process would have been an exercise that would have been totally inclusive, and pull together all the Iraqis, helping with reconciliation. Obviously that did not happen and has not happened," he said.
AIR STRIKES
A U.S. military statement said the Ramadi battle occurred on Sunday and involved U.S. jets, helicopters and ground troops.
It said at least 20 suspected militants were killed when an F-15 aircraft bombed a group of men burying a roadside bomb -- one of the deadliest weapons in the insurgent arsenal.
Another 50 militants were killed in a series of separate strikes, the statement added, saying military commanders had no indications of any U.S. or civilian casualties in the operation.
However, Ramadi police Lieutenant Karim Salim said 20 of those killed were civilians, including some children as young as 11. Doctors in the city had made a similar assessment on Sunday.
"Their bodies were completely ripped apart," Salim said.
Iyad al-Dulaimi, a doctor at Ramadi general hospital, told Reuters the hospital had received 20 civilian bodies since U.S. operations in the city began on Friday.
The U.S. military statement said all attacks "were timed and executed in a manner to reduce the possibility of collateral damage" and that it had no reports of any civilian casualties.
Ramadi residents who survived the attack were furious.
"The planes came and bombed us right after prayers," one man shouted as others buried bodies near Ramadi. "These are innocent civilians. To hell with this constitution."
The military said separately that 18 insurgents had been killed in three separate clashes elsewhere in western Iraq.
Iraq's Defence Ministry said separately U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed 12 insurgents south of Baghdad on Sunday.
In the northern city of Mosul, police found the bodies of eight men believed to be Iraqi soldiers shot through the head.
U.S. officials have sought to portray the big Sunni vote as a sign Iraq is moving towards full democracy which will ultimately allow the withdrawal of 156,000 U.S. troops.
Six more U.S. soldiers were killed in the Sunni Arab-dominated west of the country over the weekend, bringing the total U.S. toll to 1,971 since the 2003 invasion.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Hassan, Azeel Kami and Mariam Karouny in Baghdad, and by Ammar al-Alwani in Ramadi)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1765436.htm
By Andrew Quinn
BAGHDAD, Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships killed about 70 suspected militants near the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, the military said on Monday, and a landmark referendum appeared to have backed a new constitution.
Ramadi police said about 20 of those killed in the U.S. strikes were civilians, including some children who had gathered around the wreckage of a U.S. military vehicle. But the U.S. military said it believed they were all "terrorists".
Election officials slowly counted up to 10 million ballots from Saturday's referendum, with partial results pointing to a clear win for a charter Washington hopes will help establish Iraq as a stable democracy able to do without U.S. troops.
Movement of ballot boxes to the Baghdad counting centre was complicated by a sandstorm across much of Iraq which grounded helicopters and prevented any transport of boxes by air.
Opponents of the constitution in the Sunni Arab minority complained of fraud and questioned the time taken for the count.
The Electoral Commission, where officials indicate privately that the charter is all but ratified, said all was in order but very high local votes, both "Yes" and "No", of up to 80 or 90 percent had to be audited in line with international practice.
The violence in Ramadi, a rebellious city about 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, highlighted the challenge posed by Sunni Arab insurgents opposed to the U.S.-backed constitution.
Few people in Ramadi voted, yet for the first time, many Sunnis elsewhere in Iraq took part in the referendum, even if a large majority of them voted "No", provisional figures show.
Iraqis digested the news that the constitution had probably passed, with some hailing it as a good sign and others warning it could push the country closer to complete breakdown.
"If the constitution passes without consideration for the voters who said 'No', it will lead to a sectarian war," said Faisal Houmud, 37, a merchant in the Sunni bastion of Falluja.
Sunni politicians were divided on the issue but several conceded that the constitution would come into force come what may. They would thus focus their energies on an election on Dec. 15 to boost their power to amend it in parliament.
U.S. President George W. Bush hailed the vote, which went off amid tight security and almost without bloodshed in the absence of insurgent attacks the U.S. military had predicted.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, however, said the result showed divisions ran deep and violence might continue:
"We had hoped that the constitutional process would have been an exercise that would have been totally inclusive, and pull together all the Iraqis, helping with reconciliation. Obviously that did not happen and has not happened," he said.
AIR STRIKES
A U.S. military statement said the Ramadi battle occurred on Sunday and involved U.S. jets, helicopters and ground troops.
It said at least 20 suspected militants were killed when an F-15 aircraft bombed a group of men burying a roadside bomb -- one of the deadliest weapons in the insurgent arsenal.
Another 50 militants were killed in a series of separate strikes, the statement added, saying military commanders had no indications of any U.S. or civilian casualties in the operation.
However, Ramadi police Lieutenant Karim Salim said 20 of those killed were civilians, including some children as young as 11. Doctors in the city had made a similar assessment on Sunday.
"Their bodies were completely ripped apart," Salim said.
Iyad al-Dulaimi, a doctor at Ramadi general hospital, told Reuters the hospital had received 20 civilian bodies since U.S. operations in the city began on Friday.
The U.S. military statement said all attacks "were timed and executed in a manner to reduce the possibility of collateral damage" and that it had no reports of any civilian casualties.
Ramadi residents who survived the attack were furious.
"The planes came and bombed us right after prayers," one man shouted as others buried bodies near Ramadi. "These are innocent civilians. To hell with this constitution."
The military said separately that 18 insurgents had been killed in three separate clashes elsewhere in western Iraq.
Iraq's Defence Ministry said separately U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed 12 insurgents south of Baghdad on Sunday.
In the northern city of Mosul, police found the bodies of eight men believed to be Iraqi soldiers shot through the head.
U.S. officials have sought to portray the big Sunni vote as a sign Iraq is moving towards full democracy which will ultimately allow the withdrawal of 156,000 U.S. troops.
Six more U.S. soldiers were killed in the Sunni Arab-dominated west of the country over the weekend, bringing the total U.S. toll to 1,971 since the 2003 invasion.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Hassan, Azeel Kami and Mariam Karouny in Baghdad, and by Ammar al-Alwani in Ramadi)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1765436.htm
cw via reuters
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
kiddies killed
18.10.2005 04:06
The story in Iraq was simple. The resistance executed five american terrorists in uniform by destroying their vehicle. Blair's forces patrolled the sky, Israeli fashion, waiting for the kids to gather, and then they butchered them. No doubt, even now, some US butcher is swapping the footage for porn on one of those right-wing sites.
In reality, this was no act of revenge for Blair, but an opportunity to green-light a nice little atrocity against the Sunnis to stoke the flames, and keep the bullets and bombs flying. LIVE-FIRE TRAINING GROUND is the true name of the Iraq project. After all, if I were kin to one of those kiddies butchered by Blair, and sneering called militants by the garbage at reuters, I'd spend the rest of my life planning to kill as many americans as possible. This is the point. Ensure that the Iraqis face constant rape, torture and rape (all entirely legal acts under the laws of occupation passed by the UK parliament, the UN, and the stooge government in Iraq), so that there is a never ending supply of cannon fodder to challenge american troops, and give them real combat training.
Remember, the Mass Media only shows the masses the propaganda that Blair dictates. For instance, the pulling down of Saddam's statue was revealed as a psy-op the day after it happened on the Internet. However, the BBC was the main news-organisation behind the charade, and STILL broadcasts MI6 agent Ragi Omar's stream of lies describing the non-existant crowds and celebrations, whenever the World Service is on the topic of Iraq.
Blair murders a street full of kids, and the BBC will happily describe footage of the dead kids as suspect, and not to be believed. The same BBC plays Ragi Omar's disgusting proven lies over and over, and tells the world that this PROVES that Blair is a hero.
They are NEVER sneaky or clever. Their lies are ALWAYS in your face. Their headlines always tell the message THEY want you to hear. Kids become MOM's (military aged males, an Israeli term for any male muslim they murder). Empty squares become hoards of cheering Iraqis, welcoming in an invading force that can legally rape, torture and murder without penalty.
Hey, but YOU would vote for a constitution that allowed an occupying force of Chinese to stay in the UK as long as they like, build military bases, and commit ANY crimes against UK citizens legally, taking all our oil revenues and using it to train an army of local torturers, robbers, and butchers to keep us supressed WOULDN'T YOU. I mean, who could resist such a prospect. Heaven, I bet we'd all give such a constitution better than the 2 out of 10 vote that gave Blair ABSOLUTE power here. Best of all would be those foreign mercenaries the Chinese would invite in. You know, the ones paid at thousands of times our salaries (from our oil revenues again), who get to rape, torture and murder us without even the risk of a court martial. Why do the Iraqis get all the luck, and we get to miss out???
twilight
Blame the insurgents!
18.10.2005 09:00
If the insurgents had never took up arms to try to destroy the new Iraq then there would have been permanent peace two and a half years ago and all the money earmarked for Iraq by the US government would have been spend on reconstruction. Therefore the reconstruction proccess without the insurgency wouold have proceeded much faster, bringing new prosperity to the Iraqi people.
Voice of reason