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May 20, 2004 Disputed Strike by U.S. Military Leaves at Least 40 Iraqis Dead By DEXTER FILKINS and EDWARD WONG BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 19 — About 40 Iraqis were killed Wednesday by American forces in an attack near the volatile border with Syria. American officials said they had fired on a suspected guerrilla safe house, but Iraqis said the Americans had strafed civilians at a wedding party. American military officials said the attack occurred in the open desert on Wednesday evening, about 15 miles from the Syrian border and southwest of the town of Qusaiba. In a statement, American officials said they had called in air support after an American military operation in the area had come under hostile fire. After the attack, the Americans said they had recovered "numerous weapons," cash and foreign passports. Associated Press Television News broadcast film, said to be taken at the scene, showing a truck heaped with bloody bodies, many of them wrapped in blankets. Several of the bodies shown appeared to be those of children. Both the American and the Iraqi accounts agreed that about 40 people had died. But some Iraqis and several reports in the Arab press said the attack had killed civilians, not insurgents. Al Arabiya, a television network based in Dubai, quoted witnesses as saying American planes had bombed a wedding party in Makr al-Deeb, a village near the Syrian border. The film included pictures of shrouded bodies and scenes of men digging graves. On the broadcast, an unidentified man told Al Arabiya, "The American planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us. They destroyed the whole village. We didn`t fire any bullets." The Associated Press quoted Lt. Col. Ziyad al-Jbouri, the deputy police chief of Ramadi, as saying that between 42 and 45 people had died, including 15 children and 10 women. The Associated Press also quoted Dr. Salah al-Ani, a hospital worker in Ramadi, as saying 45 people were dead. Ramadi is the capital of the province of Al Anbar, which includes the area around Qusaiba. Iraqis interviewed by Associated Press Television said revelers had fired volleys of gunfire into the air in a traditional wedding celebration just before the American attack. American troops have mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire at least once before. In July 2002, officials in Afghanistan said that at least 48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by an American airstrike in the province of Oruzgan. A report released afterward by the United States Central Command said the airstrike was justified because American planes had come under fire. In Iraq, it was impossible to sort out the conflicting claims late Wednesday. The area near the strike is a vast, desolate place crisscrossed by smugglers. American officials have long suspected the area to be a transit point for foreign and Iraqi guerrillas and have condemned the Syrian government for not cracking down on the traffic. Last June, American commandos attacked a convoy of cars and trucks in the area, engaging in firefights with Syrian border guards. American officials said the convoy appeared to contain high ranking members from Saddam Hussein`s government. But the results of the raid were inconclusive. The conflicting reports of the attack near the Syrian border came as up to 300 people marched through the streets of Karbala to protest fighting between American forces and militiamen loyal to a rebel Shiite cleric, and battles continued near revered shrines in the downtown area. The protesters gathered after a request on Tuesday from the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, which called for a demonstration against the presence of American and insurgent forces in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. The ayatollah also issued a statement demanding a military withdrawal from both cities. It was the strongest criticism that Ayatollah Sistani, the most influential Shiite in Iraq, had made against the fighting in recent weeks, though no commander on either side has heeded him. The protesters in Karbala gathered in the morning at the Hussein Hospital. The protest was significantly smaller than those others called for by the ayatollah, possibly because of firefights raging in the middle of the city. As the protesters marched toward the golden-domed Shrine of Hussein, they asked that tribal sheiks and police forces be given responsibility for security in the city. American F-16 fighter jets, called in to provide surveillance of the city, swooped overhead as the marchers spilled into the streets. For more than two weeks, the First Armored Division has been fighting insurgents here led by Moktada al-Sadr, the 31-year-old rebel cleric who lives in Najaf. The battles have crept closer and closer to two of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, the Shrine of Hussein and the Shrine of Abbas, dedicated to Shiite martyrs. Early Monday morning, the American military called in an airstrike from an AC-130 gunship, which fired 40-millimeter cannons at a group of insurgents clustered about 160 feet from the Shrine of Hussein. The F-16`s did not take part in firing, the military said. On Wednesday, American tanks were parked about 600 feet from the shrine. One Iraqi witness said they appeared to be encircling the building. There were firefights throughout the day in the alleys of the downtown area. American forces have occupied the Mukhaiyam Mosque since May 12, after a pitched battled with insurgents. The mosque now comes under daily attack from militiamen firing mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades. At least eight insurgents were killed in fighting, said Capt. Noel Gorospe, a spokesman for the First Battalion, 37th Armor, of the First Armored Division. There were no American casualties, he said. Polish forces also fought militiamen. By evening, insurgents had fired at least 3 mortar rounds and 13 rocket-propelled grenades at American soldiers, Captain Gorospe said. He added that soldiers had come under sniper fire five times. One especially skilled sniper has killed two American soldiers and wounded four since the American forces took over the Mukhaiyam Mosque. In total, 4 American soldiers have been killed and at least 52 wounded during the two-week offensive against Mr. Sadr`s forces here. Col. Pete Mansoor, commander of the First Brigade of the First Armored Division, said rocket-propelled grenades had been fired at least once from the Shrine of Hussein at tanks. A Predator drone flying overhead at the time recorded the projectiles originating from the shrine, he said. But on Wednesday, it appeared that the militia forces, called the Mahdi Army, had been barred from entering the shrine by armed guards appointed by the offices of the marjaiah, the four grand ayatollahs living in Najaf. Mahdi fighters stood about 150 feet from the Shrine of Hussein, while about 80 men armed with automatic rifles and working for the Shrines Protection Force stood inside the two central shrines. Members of the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a powerful Shiite political party, were nowhere to be seen. American commanders said the group had promised to secure the shrines. But the group is apparently not popular among residents of Karbala and would have little support if it went into battle against the Mahdi Army. Dexter Filkins reported from Baghdad, Iraq, for this article, and Edward Wong from Karbala. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Guten Morgen Mr. Bush |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | Joerver (20.05.04 11:11:51) |
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