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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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December 9th,
2006 - Photos Confirm US Raid Child Deaths |
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Photos Confirm US Raid Child
Deaths Al Jazeera December 9, 2006 Al Jazeera has obtained
exclusive footage that confirms children were among the victims of a US air
raid northwest of Baghdad. Local officials said that the bodies of 17
civilians, including six children and eight women, had been pulled from the
debris of two houses in al-Ishaqi. The US military had issued a
statement on Friday saying that two women were among 20 suspected "al
Qaeda terrorists" killed in the operation. Al Jazeera's footage showed
the bodies of men, women and children wrapped in blankets after they had been
pulled from the rubble. The Agence France Presse
news agency said it passed its own photographs of the dead children to
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, a US military spokesman, who said:
"We've checked with the troops who conducted this operation - there were
no children found among the terrorists killed. "I see nothing in the
photos that indicates those children were in the houses that our forces
received fire from and subsequently destroyed with the air strike." Faces unrecognisable In Aljazeera's pictures
angry villagers had gathered around the bodies, several of which were so
badly charred that their faces were unrecognisable. Local residents said that
one entire family had been killed. "The Americans have
done this before but they always deny it," Amer Alwan, the mayor of
al-Ishaqi, told Reuters news agency. "I want the world to know what's
happening here." He also told the AFP news
agency: "This is the third crime done by Americans in this area of
Ishaqi. All the casualties were innocent women and children and everything
they said about them being part of al-Qaeda is a lie." He told Al Jazeera that he
was calling for an international investigation into the attack. Abdullah Hussain Jabbara,
deputy governor of Salah al-Din governorate, told Al Jazeera: "Residents
of the two houses [which were bombed] have nothing to do with al-Qaeda
network. All the people killed are members of the same family." Civilians killed Jabbara said an
investigation into the incident would be carried out. "But what is the use of
opening an investigation?" he asked. "The occupation still exists
and Iraqi citizens are the victims." The US said the dead were
'al Qaeda terrorists' Local officials and Iraqi
police had said on Friday that they believed 32 civilians had been killed in
the attack. Troops raided a cluster of
buildings in the area around Thar Thar lake on Friday. The US military said in a
statement on Friday the operation in Salaheddin province had been "based
on intelligence reports that indicated associates with links to multiple
al-Qaeda in Iraq networks were operating in the area". The statement said troops
had come under fire, and "despite efforts to subdue the remaining armed
terrorists, coalition forces continued to be threatened by enemy fire,
causing forces to call in close air support ... resulting in 18 more armed
terrorists killed." "This is another step
closer to defeating al Qaeda in Iraq and helping establish a safe and
peaceful Iraq. Coalition Forces will continue to target not only senior al
Qaeda in Iraq leaders, but all terrorists regardless of their titles or
positions within the community," the statement said. Dead women The US military said AK-47
machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-personnel mines, explosives,
blasting caps and suicide vests were found during the operation. Garver told AFP news agency
on Friday that the dead women would have been confirmed as combatants in a
"battle damage assessment" or inspection of the site following the
incident. "If there is a weapon
with or next to the person or they are holding it, they are a
terrorist," he said. Only a handful of complaints
involving civilian deaths in Iraq have led to criminal investigations by the
US military. "I can promise you
that, in every one of these incidents, they will be fully investigated,"
Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking US general in the
country, said. Al Jazeera contacted the US
military for further comment following the release of the television footage. Officials said they had
nothing new to add to their earlier comments. In March, Iraqis accused US
forces of shooting 11 people in al-Ishaqi, including four women and five
children, while US forces maintained it had only killed two women and a child
in an air strike. The BBC later broadcast
video footage from the scene showing people with gunshot wounds. The soldiers
involved in the case, however, were cleared of all misconduct. External link: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m28889 |