Another example of precision bombing or precision targeting?
**US cockpit pictures **](http://www.channel4.com/news/2004/10/week_2/05_iraq.html)
It’s the most bitter battle in Iraq, the American attempt to subdue the town of Fallujah has been bloody and confused for both sides.
Channel 4 News has obtained video from an American fighter jet showing it launching an attack on a group of people in a Fallujah street.
The American military have confirmed to us that it is genuine. But it isn’t clear whether what we’re seeing is a massacre or a military operation in this rare and disturbing example of real footage of the fighting.
Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson reports:
For several days American and Iraqi forces have killed scores of civilians in Samarra as they seized the town from the insurgents.
For successive nights they have bombed Fallujah in preparation to do the same.
And once they decided to bomb cities they decided to accept the routine killing of civilians as the price for hitting their target.
We have pictures that offer a rare glimpse inside America’s disastrous attempt to seize Falllujah from the insurgents in April. At that time, there were reports of hundreds of bodies piling up at the hospital.
But until now, we’ve had little real idea of how American pilots go about bombing in built-up areas.
The Pentagon has confirmed the pictures show a cockpit video from a US Airforce F-16 fighter, shot in April.
The pilot tells ground control he can see numerous individuals on the road.
He asks if he should take them out?
Instantly he’s told to take them out.
The pilot locks the bomb guidance system onto the crown running along the street.
The pilot’s reaction: “Aw dude.”
Overnight, Channel 4 News received the following e-mail:
“This video is indeed gun film footage from a US Air Force F-16 fighter. The mission was not “recent”, it was in April 2004. This was a close air support mission, flown by an F-16 Fighting Falcon in the Fallujah vicinity, and under the control of a Joint Terminal Attack Controller serving with ground forces in the area. The JTAC designated the target and confirmed the hit.”
The confirmed hit happens incredibly quickly, just 32 seconds from the pilot telling ground control he’s seen the crowd to the deaths of thirty or so people.
The video grpahcially illustrates US rules of engagement in practice. Unlike British troops, if the Americans percieve anybody or anything to be a threat it is attacked, particualrly in Fallujah, particularly in April.
As Fallujah again comes into US gunsights many will want to know who were these people? Insurgents? Innocents? Running away from trouble? running to attack? Tonight a doctor who was at Fallujah hospital told us these people were innocent civilians fleeing from houses where they’d been pinned down by American snipers by running down the street.
The Pentagon says its chasing answers but has yet to explain why these people were targeted.