U.S. Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis at Wedding Party

U.S. Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis at Party

By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party early Wednesday in western Iraq (news - web sites), killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating.

Lt. Col Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of the city of Ramadi, said between 42 and 45 people died in the attack, which took place about 2:45 a.m. in a remote desert area near the border with Syria and Jordan. He said those killed included 15 children and 10 women.

Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.

Associated Press Television News obtained videotape showing a truck containing bodies of those allegedly killed.

About a dozen bodies, one without a head, could be clearly seen. but it appeared that bodies were piled on top of each other and a clear count was not possible.

The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television reported that more than 20 people were killed and 10 injured in the attack.

Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said partygoers had fired into the air in a traditional wedding celebration. American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.

"I cannot comment on this because we have not received any reports from our units that this has happened nor that any were involved in such a tragedy," Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military spokesman, wrote in an e-mail in response to a question from The Associated Press.

"We take all these requests seriously and we have forwarded this inquiry to the Joint Operations Center for further review and any other information that may be available," Williams said.

The video footage showed mourners with shovels digging graves. A group of men crouched and wept around one coffin.

Al-Ani said people at the wedding fired weapons in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and left. However, al-Ani said, helicopters attacked the area at about 3 a.m. Two houses were destroyed, he said.

"This was a wedding and the (U.S.) planes came and attacked the people at a house. Is this the democracy and freedom that (President) Bush has brought us?" said a man on the videotape, Dahham Harraj. "There was no reason."

Another man shown on the tape, who refused to give his name, said the victims were at a wedding party "and the U.S. military planes came... and started killing everyone in the house."

In July 2002, Afghan officials said 48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s Uruzgan province. An investigative report released by the U.S. Central Command said the airstrike was justified because American planes had come under fire.

Now i can only Half trust the stories/articles whathaveyou that come out of that continent .

I have to question this article, because I wonder why the US would have such a hardon for attacking weddings:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asi...sia/2079565.stm

Anybody remember this one 2 years ago?

Edit: Missed that they included that in the original. Now I'm also wondering why the middle eastern people really feel the need to fire guns into the air while their country is under foreign military occupation.

gets better by the day.

For 18 days, Saddam Saleh was kept naked for 23 hours a day, chained by his arms and legs to the bars of his cell with loud music blaring constantly in his ears

The Iraqi truck driver shakes his head with disbelief when he recalls the screams of a girl he says was raped by US soldiers, and the shame of being urinated on when he was imprisoned at Abu Ghraib.

Saddam Saleh was held for four months at the jail just outside Baghdad. For 18 days he was kept naked for 23 hours a day, chained by his arms and legs to the bars of his cell with loud music blaring constantly in his ears. Saleh,29 , appears in at least one of the pictures of torture and degradation that have so far emerged from Abu Ghraib, standing in a row of naked and hooded men as Private Lynndie England, cigarette in mouth, points at their genitals.

Most of the time he was held in a razor-wire pen outside, but for nearly a month he was held in cell 42 of block1 A, the most notorious wing, where much of the worst abuse took place.

By far the worst thing he remembers is the rape of a girl who appeared no more than16 . According to Saleh, a US soldier ripped off her clothes and raped her in front of her father as he was tied to bars in the hallway outside block1 A.

"When she started screaming you can't imagine how it sounded. I still hear the echoes of her screams in my head," Saleh said. "What beasts could have done that?"

Saleh was sent to Abu Ghraib on Dec. 1 last year, after the worst of the abuses are said to have taken place, and was freed on March28 , according to his release papers, which list him as prisoner 200144 .

Saleh recalled how one American soldier "had one of the soldiers urinate on me, he beat me with an iron bar and dragged me around the floor in chains." When recounting his experiences, Saleh occasionally switches into very basic English, repeating words he often heard his jailers use, like "son of a bitch" and "bastard." Saleh, a truck driver from west of Baghdad, says he was arrested in the capital after going to the police to alert them to a suspicious car. After finding a lot of money on him, the police themselves became suspicious and handed Saleh over to US forces. Saleh says the money was to buy furniture before his marriage.

He says he only found out the accusations against him three days before being released. He was told that he was being held on suspicion of belonging to a resistance cell. Saleh is aware that Specialist Jeremy Sivits, who is alleged to have taken many photos of the abuse, will be court-martialled in Baghdad on Wednesday, and wants to attend the trial. If he is prevented, he says he will force his way in.

"I want to give evidence. I want to tell them what I suffered," he said.

Saleh believes his attackers should receive the same punishment as they meted out to their captives. "Even if it's just for half an hour, it would be enough," he said. He is alarmed that Iraqis will not be involved in the trial. "If Iraq invaded America and treated Americans like they treated us, would they let Iraqis try themselves? It's unbelievable to me that the enemy becomes the judge." Towards the end of the interview, Saleh asked a translator to tell him what his release paper, kept tightly folded in his wallet, actually says. After the formulaic legal document is translated, Saleh asks: "But does it say sorry anywhere?"

Six weeks after his release, he says he has lost the will to live. He is too ashamed to be seen by his friends and family and has not seen or spoken to his fiancee. The wedding is off.

"I was a man before, but my manhood was taken away," he says. "Since this happened to me, I consider myself dead. My life feels over.

http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture3.jpg'>

he is apparently one of the guys in the picture.

he says he was kept naked 23 hours a day,

pissed on nearly constantly and tied up next to a speaker playing 'american rock n roll'

Originally posted by GnomeToys

Now I'm also wondering why the middle eastern people really feel the need to fire guns into the air while their country is under foreign military occupation.

im wondering why we have such a hard fucking time understanding mideast culture and working with it rather then fucking blaming innocent deaths on a custom that our ethnocentric minds cant grasp...

:nope:

im hearing that the US changed the name of Abu Ghraib to "Camp Redemption"

no joke

goddamn that is horrible shit key..

*camp fucking redemption?!

Originally posted by mental invalid

im wondering why we have such a hard fucking time understanding mideast culture and working with it rather then fucking blaming innocent deaths on a custom that our ethnocentric minds cant grasp...

When the military hears gunfire, they react to it in their standard way. Another reason we shouldn't be there in the first place.

Keyman, you got a link to that?

Nevermind.

Originally posted by CILONE/SK

I am wondering why firing weapons in the air is acceptable anywhere. It is not a culture thing, it is a stupid ass thing...They just wouldn't kill people if they were not getting fired at...This story is bullshit.

1. its not your place to wonder, its theirs...you want to have cake at your wedding then so be it, they want to fire guns, if you dont like it, dont go there...

2.it happened in afghanistan

3.as far as this story being bullshit you may want to provide some facts rather then just your opinion

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120373,00.html

for those that distrust the liberal media....

Originally posted by CILONE/SK

 

The Arab media is well known to make up bullshit to support their cause.

2 words.... JESSICA LYNCH !

Originally posted by GnomeToys

I have to question this article, because I wonder why the US would have such a hardon for attacking weddings:

 

that was my first question as well, when i saw the headline the first thing i thought of was that incident in afghanistan.

celebreate life with death.

I was hoping this was a distasteful title for the horoscope....

Instead I find that this is real. Didn't this happen earlier in the war as well? Or am I trapped in a timeloop with the surreality of this madness?

last time i checked investigating did not mean "bullshit"...

and no where did i say or did the article say they did it on purpose...it was a mistake...but apparently a costly one...

and what the arab media has to do with this is beyond me...

maybe you missed my point (CILONE)

I said Jessica Lynch as solid proof the Arba news media isn't alone in making up bullshit.

Originally posted by CILONE/SK

 

I only trust pics so far, because they can be doctored..

http://www.b98fm.com/timages/page/manonwtc.jpg'>

"Thus the corsair's first task, which began immediately after taking a prize, was to determine the identities, or at least the qualitites of their captives. Renegadoes who spoke their languages would interrogate them, using guile by preference to torture, to elicit details. The corsairs developed a fascination with hands: soft hands of an aristo or merchant, calloused hands of a mere mariner, peculiar signs and deformations of certain trades and crafts, the telltale inkstain of literacy, even the chiromancy to determine health, fate, personality."

Originally posted by CILONE/SK

I am wondering why firing weapons in the air is acceptable anywhere. It is not a culture thing, it is a stupid ass thing. I just don't believe this article. Too many things don't make sense. They just wouldn't kill people if they were not getting fired at. If they did, it would be like Mai Lai(?) and it would come out. I know that most soldiers have nothing against the iraq's and won't just kill them for the hell of it. There are some crazy's that would, but they are rare and usually get kicked out before they fuck something up.

 

This story is bullshit.

word.

i think firing guns in the air on new years, weddings etc is pimp...but not when there are a bunch of soilders all around you, thats dumb as hell

btw...i dont beleive half of the stories i hear come out of that shit hole.

http://www.kak.ru/images/archive/13-14/london/Br14.jpg'>

something that is weird to me, is how the public, the media, John Kerry, politicians, et cetera don't seem to be outraged by the unwarranted killing of human beings. it doesn't seem to register on people. mean, i think the fact that this has happened warrants some serious actions, never mind gas prices or the economy. maybe that's just me.

Originally posted by ARCEL

something that is weird to me, is how the public, the media, John Kerry, politicians, et cetera don't seem to be outraged by the unwarranted killing of human beings. it doesn't seem to register on people. mean, i think the fact that this has happened warrants some serious actions, never mind gas prices or the economy. maybe that's just me.

what do people seem to be more concerned about, the kid that got shot down the way, their stocks, their daily chores and duties or the family that was set on fire in a place they cant even properly pronounce on the other side of this world?

Originally posted by <KEY3>

2 words.... JESSICA LYNCH !

I hate that bitch , i know its bias or uninlightened but i dont care about her reasons BS , shes a SKUNT .

of course the us military and the us government will come up with some bullshit excuse why all this is happening. note the president gets information from the cia and military with everytrhing thats going on inthe military and the world everyday. now this iraqi prsion torture. yeah he didnt know about that until about 2 weeks hard to believe.. im sure there wasnt one of the hundred soldiers gaurding the prision that didnt say anything way before this shit even started to come out. they just wait for some stupid moment to throw all this out to us and have excuses ready and shit they have planned to do and all that bullshit. i remember clinton addressing the nation at least 2 times a month on whats going on. bush. comes on whenever the us fails and sweet talks us back into believing we can fix what we've done and what we;'ve started

Originally posted by mental invalid

im wondering why we have such a hard fucking time understanding mideast culture and working with it rather then fucking blaming innocent deaths on a custom that our ethnocentric minds cant grasp...

i agree with this....we should just stay outta everyone elses fucking business

im sure it was a cover up for a meeting they were engaging in to discuss their next attack.

four serious.

booom

What a surprise..... :rolleyes: