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December 10th,
2006 - Angry Iraqis Bury Victims of U.S. Airstrike |
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Angry Iraqis Bury Victims of
U.S. Airstrike By Ross Colvin Reuters Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:33 AM IST Baghdad - Angry residents of
a village north of Baghdad fired into the air and chanted "God is
greatest" as they buried the victims of a U.S. air strike that the
country's Sunni leaders condemned as a massacre. Car bombs exploded in cities
north and south of the capital, killing 10 people and wounding scores, while
in Washington U.S. President George W. Bush called on Republicans and
Democrats to work together on a new strategy for Iraq. "Now it is the
responsibility of all of us in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike,
to come together and find greater consensus on the best way forward,"
Bush said in his weekly radio address. His call followed the
release this week of recommendations by a high-level bipartisan panel which
described the situation in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating" and
urged Washington to begin a regional diplomatic effort and boost U.S.
training for Iraqi army units. The U.S. military said the
air strike on the village of Jalameda, near Ishaqi, 90 km north of Baghdad on
Friday targeted al Qaeda militants who had clashed with troops. It said 18
men and two women were killed. But local officials in
Jalameda said there were 17 victims and that they included six women and five
children. Relatives showed the children's bodies to journalists. In March, Ishaqi police and
officials accused U.S. troops of tying up and shooting dead six adults and
five children and then calling in an air strike to destroy the house. An investigation
by the U.S. unit involved concluded there was no wrongdoing. Hundreds March Hundreds of chanting
residents of Jalameda, a predominantly Sunni village, marched through Ishaqi
on Saturday firing shots and carrying banners that read: "The people of
Ishaqi condemn the mass killing by the occupation forces". The bodies, wrapped in white
cloth, were laid out in rows on the ground as residents prayed over them.
They were later buried. "We ask the Americans
to be merciful. They kill civilians alleging they are terrorists. Ishaki is a
catastrophe," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the biggest Sunni political
bloc in parliament. The Sunni Muslim Scholars
Association also "strongly condemned the massacre" and accused U.S.
soldiers of planting explosives and weapons at the scene to justify the air
strike. In fresh violence, a suicide
car bomber killed seven people and wounded 44 in a crowded market in the holy
Shi'ite city of Kerbala on Saturday, hospital sources said. At about the same time,
three people were killed and three wounded in a car bomb explosion in the
ethnically mixed northern city of Mosul. The country is gripped by a
wave of bloodletting between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis after
the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February. The U.S. military also
reported the deaths of two Marines in Anbar province, the heartland of an
unrelenting Sunni insurgency against U.S. forces, who the Iraq Study Group
said in its report this week should begin pulling out by early 2008. Bush has reacted coolly to
that proposal as well as one urging the United States to hold direct talks
with Iran and Syria, which he accuses of fuelling the violence with their
respective support for Shi'ite militants and Sunni insurgents. But he is under pressure for
a shift in strategy in the unpopular war with sectarian violence rising and a
growing number of Americans unhappy with his handling of the conflict. While Bush said he would
consider all of the group's 79 recommendations, he also said he would await
other reviews by the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council
expected soon. "I want to hear all
advice as I make the decisions to chart a new course in Iraq," Bush
said. Sectarian violence has
continued largely unabated in Iraq. More than 2,900 U.S. troops have died and
tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion
that ousted Saddam Hussein. © Reuters 2006. All rights
reserved. External link: http://tinyurl.com/ygj8hr |