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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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November 29th,
2006 - U.S. Raids Kill Iraqi Civilians, including Women & Children |
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U.S. Raids Kill Iraqi
Civilians, including Women & Children Al Jazeera 11/29/2006 11:00:00 PM GMT A U.S. air strike killed 8
Iraqi civilians, including two women, in the northern city of Baqouba on
Wednesday, a day after U.S. tank fire killed five young Iraqi girls in the
western Anbar province. The U.S. army claimed that
American soldiers clashing with Iraqi fighters in Baquoba called in air
support that killed eight “al-Qaeda” rebels. After the air strike, U.S.
forces found the bodies of two Iraqi women, the military said in a statement.
But Iraqi police said all
the dead were innocent civilians belonging to two families. Witnesses said the victims
included a man and his three sons, as well as another couple and their son
and daughter. Baqouba, 35 miles northeast
of Baghdad, is the capital of Diyala province, which has witnessed some of
the worst violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The Baqouba attack took
place one day after U.S. occupation forces killed five young Iraqi girls,
including at least one baby, when they raided a house in the western Anbar
province. The U.S. army claimed in a
statement that fighters on the roof of a house fired on its troops, who
responded with tank fire. The youngest female casualty
was six-months-old and the eldest was aged 10, reports say. One man was also killed in
the U.S. raid, which took place in the city of Ramadi, 115km west of Baghdad,
the U.S. army said in a statement. Another female was also
wounded in the raid, but refused treatment by the Americans, the statement
added. The army claims that the
killings took place after the soldiers discovered an improvised explosive
device on the roadside in north-east Ramadi. U.S. soldiers say as the
bomb was being defused, two Iraqi men took up positions on the roof of a
nearby house and began firing at them. The Americans returned fire
with machine guns and tank rounds, the military statement said. After the firefight, the
Americans discovered the six dead Iraqis in the house. One of the Iraqi fighters
may have been injured in the raid, the military statement said, adding that
there were no U.S. casualties. Hundreds of innocent Iraqi
civilians have been killed in U.S. military operations since the invasion. The volatile Anbar province
has witnessed several attacks on Iraqi civilians since the war began. One
unit of Marines is being investigated for the killing of 24 unarmed civilians
in the western town of Haditha last year. The deadly U.S. attacks came
ahead of a scheduled meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The two leaders are expected
to discuss ways to improve the security situation in Iraq, and transfer more
responsibility to Iraq's security forces. President Bush, who is
facing growing political pressure over the lack of progress in Iraq, is
expected to give public support to Maliki, but will pressure him privately to
curb Iraq’s growing violence, correspondents say. In Iraq, the political bloc loyal
to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr decided to boycott the government and the
parliament in protest at Maliki’s meeting with Bush, which it criticized as a
provocation to the Iraqi people and a violation of their constitutional
rights. The Amman summit comes one
day after the 15-member United Nations Security Council extended the mandate
of the multinational force in Iraq until the end of next year. The move was requested by
the Iraqi government, which said that UN troops were needed for another year
while it built up its own security forces. The mandate will be reviewed
by 15 June, or earlier if Iraq requests. About 160,000 foreign
troops, the majority of them from the United States, operate in Iraq under
the UN mandate. In other developments; - A bomb exploded Wednesday
near a bus station in the al-Nahda area of Baghdad, killing two people. - A human bomber rammed his
car into a police station north of Baghdad, as dozens of gunmen raided a
nearby checkpoint, Iraqi security officials said, adding that six people were
killed in both attacks. - The U.S. army said two
soldiers died from their injuries in separate incidents in Iraq on Tuesday. External link: http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12609 Six Iraqis killed in fight
with US forces Ramadi house is targeted By Thomas Wagner Associated Press November 29, 2006 Baghdad - US soldiers fought
yesterday with suspected insurgents using a building as a safe house in
Ramadi, killing one Iraqi man and five females, ranging in age from an infant
to teenagers, the US military said. The bloodshed occurred on a
day that saw sectarian violence kill nine other Iraqis and wound about 50,
police said. The bodies of 50 torture victims also were discovered, most of
them in Baghdad and the city of Baqubah to the north, police said. The battle in Ramadi began
when a US patrol discovered a roadside bomb in the Hamaniyah section of the
city, and two suspected insurgents fled to a house, where they took up
positions on the roof, the military said. As coalition forces removed
the bomb, the militants fired on the soldiers, who fought back with machine
guns and tanks, the statement said. Afterward, coalition forces
searched the house and found the six bodies, ranging in age from an infant to
teenagers, the military said. Another female was wounded but refused
treatment, it said. A US Marine died Monday in
another area of Anbar Province, the military said, raising to at least 2,881
the number of members of the American military who have died since the
beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press
count. External link:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/11/29/six_iraqis_killed_in_fight_with_us_forces/ |