:: Thursday, December 04, 2003 ::

Samarra

Probably many of us heard the story of the firefight in Samarra, Iraq between a US convoy and Iraqi resistance. The US reported 40 Iraqi fighters killed, and that some of the dead were wearing "Fedayeen uniform". But now a different picture is emerging of US forces blindly hitting out at Iraqi civilians and ordering bombing of civilian areas. Channel 4 News reports "But angry local people said the American forces had opened fire at random and several civilians had been killed and injured."

Al Jazeera reports "American troops said on Monday that 54 resistance fighters had been killed in clashes on Sunday. But our correspondent and other news agencies quoted  hospital sources and Samarra residents as saying that the US fire killed eight people, all civilians. Samarra hospital accident and emergency department anaesthetist Bassam Ibrahim said “we received the bodies of eight civilians, including a woman and a child”. It was not immediately clear whether the dead civilians included two Iranians who were found dead in their bus when on a visit to holy sites.  Hospital director Abd Tawfiq said “more than 60 people wounded by gunfire and shrapnel from US rounds are being treated at the hospital”. Colonel Fredrick Rudesheim said the toll was 46, repeating an earlier number. He added it was not a firm toll, based on a body count, but an estimate based on interviews with all the soldiers involved."


:: Alister | 12:00 pm | save this page to del.icio.us Save This Page | permalink⊕ | |

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