Iraqi women, children die as U.S. troops hit car / civilian casualties mount (merged)

[Malik73]

Is this what the American’s call “liberating” the Iraqi people?

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2481587

**7 Iraqi Women, Children Die as U.S. Troops Hit Car **

U.S. troops found seven dead Iraqi women and children and two wounded lying in a car they had fired on near the central city of Najaf on Monday, Central Command war headquarters said. Four other women or children were huddled in the vehicle, unhurt.

A spokesman said the driver had ignored warning shots. “As a last resort the soldiers fired into the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Inside the vehicle they found 13 women and children. Seven of the occupants were dead. Two were wounded. Four were unharmed,” he said early on Tuesday. Last Saturday an Iraqi suicide attack – a carbomb exploded by an Iraqi officer as it was being examined near a checkpoint – killed four U.S. soldiers. Officers say that since then their troops are being especially careful. A spokesman said on Tuesday an investigation was under way and they were trying to find out if any of the car’s occupants were hurt before the troops opened fire.

[Fret_Wizard]

Re: 7 Iraqi Women, Children Die as U.S. Troops Hit Car

[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Malik73: *
A spokesman said on Tuesday **an investigation was under way and they were trying to find out if any of the car's occupants were hurt before the troops opened fire*.
[/QUOTE]

Again, the coalition terrorists will try to put the blame on others.

[Chaltahai]

Unfortunate but sound strategy. When you have terrorists in civilian garb coming to harm you, it is hard to tell ordinary civilians from combatants. Blame your "mujahid"

[Asif_k]

Brave American Soldiers in Iraq

US soldiers gun down 7 civilians

April 01, 2003 03:35 IST

Seven women and children were on Monday shot dead by American soldiers at a checkpoint near the Shia holy town of Najaf in central Iraq.

The central command headquarters at Doha, Qatar, admitted to the incident late on Monday night.

The incident occurred when the vehicle in which they were travelling refused to heed a soldier’s order to halt at the checkpoint.

The soldiers, already edgy after a suicide bomber killed four US Marines on Saturday near another checkpoint in southern Iraq, opened fire.

Later, they found that the vehicle had 13 occupants, all women and children, seven of whom were dead. Two were injured in the incident.

US soldiers gun down 7 civilians

So much for Operation Iraq Freedom. :disgust:

[Malik73]

Re: Re: 7 Iraqi Women, Children Die as U.S. Troops Hit Car

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Fret Wizard: *

Again, the coalition terrorists will try to put the blame on others.
[/QUOTE]

Well this time they are admitting they did carry out the attack, but are saying it was perfectly in line with their operational procedures. So murdering Iraqi women and children in cold blood has become just a matter of operational procedure for the American occupation army. Sick.

[Nadia_H]

From the Washington Post:

As an unidentified four-wheel drive vehicle came barreling toward an intersection held by troops of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, Capt. Ronny Johnson grew increasingly alarmed. From his position at the intersection, he was heard radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a potential threat.

“Fire a warning shot,” he ordered as the vehicle kept coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its radiator. “Stop [messing] around!” Johnson yelled into the company radio network when he still saw no action being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice, “Stop him, Red 1, stop him!”

That order was immediately followed by the loud reports of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon’s Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all. “Cease fire!” Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he peered into his binoculars from the intersection on Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, “You just *******] killed a family because you didn’t fire a warning shot soon enough!”

So it was that on a warm, hazy day in central Iraq, the fog of war descended on Bravo Company. Fifteen Iraqi civilians were packed inside the Toyota, officers said, along with as many of their possessions as the jammed vehicle could hold. Ten of them, including five children who appeared to be under 5 years old, were killed on the spot when the high-explosive rounds slammed into their target, Johnson’s company reported. Of the five others, one man was so severely injured that medics said he was not expected to live.

“It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen, and I hope I never see it again,” Sgt. Mario Manzano, 26, an Army medic with Bravo Company of the division’s 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, said later in an interview. He said one of the wounded women sat in the vehicle holding the mangled bodies of two of her children. “She didn’t want to get out of the car,” he said. Source

Civilian killings mar US campaign, BBC, 1 April 2003

…] A senior US military officer has defended the shooting as “absolutely… the right thing”…

[Lajawab]

Innalillahewainnailaherajioon…

What the Mujahid did was correct in defending his country, may ALlah (SWT) accept his Shahadat, Ameen, but these coalition supersoldierknights are so scared witless, they will bomb a molehill if a mole comes out of it and call it a mountain containing ten Al-Qaeda operatives……

[Spock]

Barbaric... They would probably use those Tehran Embassy bombing as an excuse to justify this, but this is ridiculous!!! ** children ** died in this horrific attack!!! Shame on the troops...

[Rhia]

*Originally posted by Chaltahai: *
Unfortunate but sound strategy. When you have terrorists in civilian garb coming to harm you, it is hard to tell ordinary civilians from combatants. Blame your “mujahid”

r u for real??
children and women do not account for terrorists in civilian clothing!

Another civilian, totally unarmed murdered at the checkpoint:

Iraqi civilians killed at checkpoints

US marines today said they shot dead an unarmed Iraqi who drove his pick-up truck at speed towards a checkpoint just hours after seven women and children were killed in a similar incident.
The man’s white truck was sprayed with bullets after it sped towards the roadblock in the southern town of Shatra apparently oblivious to barbed wire strewn across the road.

His passenger was badly wounded. The truck was not loaded and neither of the men was in uniform or armed, marines told Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire.

“I thought it was a suicide bomb,” said one of the soldiers who fired on the vehicle.

Troops have been nervous, and ordered to be more cautious, after a suicide car bomb attack on Saturday killed four American soldiers at a checkpoint near Najaf in southern Iraq.

Just hours before the man was killed at the checkpoint near Shatra, US troops fired on a civilian car killing seven women and children when it failed to stop at a checkpoint in the desert.

The incident on Route 9, near the southern city of Najaf, was the worst single case of civilian deaths in the war that US forces have so far admitted.

The car, carrying 13 Iraqi women and children, approached a checkpoint manned by soldiers from the US 3rd Infantry Division.

A US military spokesman at central command in Qatar said: "The soldiers motioned for the vehicle to stop, but the motions were ignored.

"Then the soldiers fired warning shots which were also ignored. The soldiers then fired shots into the engine of the vehicle but it continued to drive towards the checkpoint.

“As a last resort the soldiers fired into the passenger compartment of the vehicle.”

But a different account was provided by a Washington Post reporter, William Branigin, who was with the soldiers. He said the troops opened fire fatally on the advancing car because they did not fire a warning shot soon enough.

Pictures of injured and dead civilians - broadcast across the Muslim world by Arabic satellite channels - have fuelled opposition to the war and sparked angry protests.

[sholay]

What happened to shooting the tyres, if in fact justification was required to shoot in the first place? Obviously the marines are the products of their country. Stupid and Gullible!

Anyway, this just shows you the hearts of the Americans soldiers. Absolutely petrified, so much that even children are a threat to them. Stick to the movies, I say.

Chaltahai

You seem to have typical American traits. Your response confirms this.

The terrorists which you seem to mention are in fact the 'real' soldiers. The Terrorists are the coalition, because they have attacked a country while breaching international law, thus making them illegal combatants.

How an earth can you be a terrorist defending your own country?

I'll leave you to work that one out.

Similarily, when the WTC was attacked outside International Law they automatically became labelled.

Unfotunately you can't have it both ways.

However, on the other hand you are an American Patriot believing that the world revolves around you and Bush is intelligent!

Enough said.

[ukwali]

US troops have shown, both through incidents like this as well as friendly fire incidents that they will shoot if they have a tiny chance of the ppl involved being the enemy. The same old game of shoot now think later".. How sad :(

Somehow I doubt this will help in improving their standing in the eyes of people anywhere, let alone in Iraq.

[2bornot2b]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Chaltahai: *
..Unfortunate but sound strategy. When you have terrorists in civilian garb coming to harm you..
[/QUOTE]

Ah, I see. How dare the Muslims wear civilian garb.

[chosen1]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Chaltahai: *
Unfortunate but sound strategy. When you have terrorists in civilian garb coming to harm you, it is hard to tell ordinary civilians from combatants. Blame your "mujahid"
[/QUOTE]

So if you defend your country you are the terrorist, and what would you call the invaders?

Regardless of what you say the terrorist in this instance are the American forces who went into a country uninvited to terrorise a nation.

Show me one invitation from the Iraqi population.

[Rajhind]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ukwali: *
US troops have shown, both through incidents like this as well as friendly fire incidents that they will shoot if they have a tiny chance of the ppl involved being the enemy. The same old game of shoot now think later".. How sad :(

Somehow I doubt this will help in improving their standing in the eyes of people anywhere, let alone in Iraq.
[/QUOTE]

This sort of incidents are inevitable in any war, whether they are killed by "friendly fire" or shooting of innocent civilians. Sad though it may be.

I remember during Iran/Iraq war when a lot young people were gased
by each side.

Sad people.

[little_human]

This is so sad....gosh...:(

[Judge_MentuLL_2]

It was reported yesterday that after the suicide bomber killed 4 American soldiers using a taxi, the marines opend fire on 3 more taxis coming out of Najaf. None of them was found to have any explosives, but they shot them all anyway just in case.

[Changez_like]

Re: 7 Iraqi Women, Children Die as U.S. Troops Hit Car

*Originally posted by Malik73: *
Is this what the American’s call “liberating” the Iraqi people?

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2481587

**7 Iraqi Women, Children Die as U.S. Troops Hit Car **

…

Its 10, not 7

[Kaleem]

More civilians killed…

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraqi civilian casualties mount

At least 11 members of the same family - mostly children - have been killed in a coalition air strike on a residential district in central Iraq, western news reports say.
Hospital sources in Hilla, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad, said they were among 33 civilians killed and more than 300 injured in the attack on Tuesday morning.

[Nadia_H]

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon.

... Is it just me or is this becoming 'routine'. Unlike the full-page obituaries that are published for American/British forces who lose their lives in this invasion, we will never hear personal, individual details for the Iraqi civilians who are murdered. They just become statistics, or numbers.
Sick world we live in.

[myvoice]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon.

... Is it just me or is this becoming 'routine'. Unlike the full-page obituaries that are published for American/British forces who lose their lives in this invasion, we will never hear personal, individual details for the Iraqi civilians who are murdered. They just become statistics, or numbers.
Sick world we live in.
[/QUOTE]

Don't worry Nadia. I'm sure Al Jazera or Iraqi TV is carrying full page obituaries for the Iraqi dead. No ... Sorry, I'm probably wrong there. They just like carrying footage of the defilement of bullet ridden corpses of American soldiers by representatives of the Iraqi regime. Indeed, it is a sick world we live in.

Oh well. In time, each of the Iraqi dead will be suitably obituaried (how's that for a word) by Fiske, Chomsky and Arnett. Except, of course, for the Iraqi dead who have been executed by the Fedayen or tortured by Saddam and his inner circle.