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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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September 7th,
2007 - U.S. Air Strike in Baghdad Kills 14 |
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U.S. Air Strike in Baghdad Kills
14 By Haider Salahaddin Reuters September 7, 2007 Baghdad - U.S. airstrikes on
a Shi'ite neighbourhood in Baghdad overnight killed at least 14 people
including one woman and destroyed 11 houses, Iraqi police and residents said
on Thursday. The U.S. military said U.S.
special forces called in the strikes after coming under fire from gunmen on
rooftops during an operation against Shi'ite militants suspected of killing
local police and Sunni Arabs. It said the soldiers,
accompanied by Iraqi special forces, directed aircraft to fire on two
buildings where gunmen were holed up. Two other buildings sustained minor
damage. "The targeted Shi'ite
extremists are part of a terrorist cell ... responsible for attacking local
police and conducting illegal checkpoints to intimidate, extort and murder
local citizens. The teams also conducts extra-judicial killings of
Sunnis," the military said in a statement. The statement did not say if
any militants or civilians were killed in the air strikes. U.S. and Iraqi forces have
stepped up raids against Shi'ite militant cells in Baghdad as part of a wider
crackdown on sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. U.S. commanders and
President George W. Bush said this week that the seven-month offensive had
improved security in Iraq. The top U.S. military
commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, suggested in an interview with ABC
News on Tuesday he would recommend a cut in U.S. troop numbers around March
when he testifies before the Democrat-controlled Congress next week. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan
Crocker will deliver their long-awaited assessment on Bush's decision to send
30,000 additional soldiers to Iraq, raising force levels to 160,000. Democrats and some top
Republicans, angered at the failure of Iraq's leaders to pass laws aimed at
fostering reconciliation between majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs, want U.S.
forces to start leaving Iraq. Two police sources said 14
people were killed and nine wounded in the air attack on Washash, a poor
Shi'ite neighbourhood in western Baghdad's Mansour district. They said the
operation took place in the early hours. Reuters television footage
showed at least 11 buildings caved in or levelled in three adjoining streets
in the densely packed neighbourhood, where fighters loyal to anti-American
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are known to operate. “Catastrophe” A Reuters cameraman saw
residents pulling the body of a woman from the rubble of one house, while one
man picked up flesh from the street and placed it into a plastic bag. "This is a catastrophe.
We have pulled 24 bodies from the rubble," said an official at Sadr's
office in Washash who declined to be named. Residents said the aerial
bombing was preceded by clashes between U.S. soldiers and gunmen. One man
said soldiers had raided his home in search of a suspect and had confiscated
mobile phones and separated the men from the women. Many residents were sleeping
on the roofs of their houses at the time, trying to keep cool in the
oppressive summer heat. "We are a peaceful
neighbourhood. Why is this happening to us?" said Abu Talib, an elderly
man with a white beard. Wamidh Abdul Jabbar, a
doctor, was sleeping with her children on the roof of her home when she heard
machinegun fire. "Then we heard the
planes bombarding and the sound of buildings crashing. I took my children and
we hid under the stairs," she said. The U.S. military's use of
attack helicopters and warplanes in Baghdad has angered the government in the
past. (Additional reporting by
Reuters Television, Wisam Mohammed and Ross Colvin in Baghdad) © Reuters 2006. All rights
reserved. External link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL0481615220070907 |