BAGHDAD, Sept. 19, 2008
U.S. Raid Kills 4 Iraqi Militants, 3 Women
Main Target, Suspected Leader Of Bombing Network, Killed, Military Says
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U.S. Army soldiers stand guard during a meeting with families who resettled in their homes after being displaced by sectarian violence in the Hurriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Sept. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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Iraqi officials and witnesses gave a conflicting account, saying those killed were civilians from a poor family that had been displaced from Baghdad during sectarian violence.
The U.S. troops were acting on tips that a man believed to be the leader of a bombing network was in Adwar, a Sunni town 70 miles north of Baghdad.
Ground forces surrounded a house and called for those inside to surrender but opened fire after an armed man appeared in the doorway, killing the main suspect, the military said.
A U.S. airstrike was then called in, killing three other suspected insurgents and three women, the military said, adding that an Iraqi child was pulled from the rubble and taken to a U.S. base for medical treatment.
The airstrike destroyed the house. Associated Press photos showed children picking through a huge pile of rubble and relatives holding vigil over the blanket-covered bodies of at least four of those killed.
U.S. airstrikes and conflicting claims about whether civilians have been killed have been common throughout more than five years of war as the Americans seek to minimize civilian casualties on the ground. But Friday's raid was the deadliest in weeks amid a relative calm due to recent security gains.
Local Iraqi officials insisted that those killed had no connection to the insurgency.
Tribal chief Sheik Faris al-Fadaam said the family moved from Baghdad more than two years ago after the head of the household, Hassan Ali, was killed because he was a Sunni policeman.
"The family was very poor," al-Fadaam said. "The family came here and we helped them to rent that house. It was an extended family. They did not have any political affiliations. They did not engage in any hostile activity or have any connection with gunmen."
The U.S. troops surrounded the house at about 2 a.m. and used loudspeakers to order occupants to evacuate, according to police and witnesses.
Two men and a woman went outside but were killed by gunfire near the gate, the police and witnesses said. Five others were killed when a helicopter fired on the house, they said.
Eight bodies were taken to the general hospital in nearby Tikrit, according to police and hospital officials.
A local police officer, Capt. Mohammed al-Douri, said the eight killed included five men and three women.
He said one of the dead was Ali Hassan Ali, the son of the Sunni policeman killed in Baghdad. Ali had called the police station at about 2 a.m. to say U.S. troops had surrounded the house and opened fire.
"We told him that we cannot come or do anything because we have no contact with the Americans," al-Douri said. "He told us that the Americans were using loudspeakers ordering them to go out of the house, then the call was cut."
The U.S. military said the targeted insurgent leader led a bombing network in the Tigris River Valley and was suspected of involvement in suicide attacks as well as roadside bombs.
It said the people in the house refused to come out "despite nearly an hour of multiple calls and warnings that the force would engage them."
"Sadly, this incident again shows that the AQI (al Qaeda in Iraq) terrorists repeatedly risk the lives of innocent women and children to further their evil work," military spokesman Col. Jerry O'Hara said.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
It looks to me as of field cdrs and the troops are getting very tired and NOT even trying to capture suspected insurgents!
So much so, that they are employing the methods of the German SS units in WWII. This is NO good! It will only result in innocent Iraqis killed, and embitterment that will last for generations to come!
We want our troops to come home safely, but we''d also like to see them come home HONORABLY, NOT with their hands needlessly stained with blood from the unnecessary taking of life!
To that end, we hope they will always call upon the use of the best judgment they can make at any given time, and NOT let expediency rule the day!
Can women be human bombs? Yes? So women can also be a threat.
So why this head line?
U.S. Raid Kills 4 Iraqi Militants, 3 Women
I''m pretty sure he is being sarchastic.
and defending himself over Iraq and going
out explaining and defending himself for
doing what republicans say they dont do,,,,
kinda ***-s up the old talking points
dont it?
I SWEAR I can SEE the aurora of
stink about him. cough** cough ** wheeze*
Posted by twalk1122 at 09:53 AM : Sep 19, 2008
Wow...by any chance did you choose you CBS screen name because your middle or last name is "Walker"?
And no mention of it having been updated...
In other words, do as we tell you or we will kill your women and children. Americans don''t have a problem killing women and children if they don''t get their way.
Posted by usclimey at 08:54 AM : Sep 19, 2008
The "primary" target was neutralized.
The story:
a) contains insufficient information to determine if our forces were receiving fire from the "three additional suspected insurgents", although if they were you would presume that would eliminate "suspected" from the description
b) any ground commander with any sense is not going to send his troops into a building where an al-Qaeda member was holed up - the chances that the whole thing is rigged to blow are too high
c) See "b", and add in "additional suspected insurgents" who are likely to both be willing to fight back and be holding "dead-man" switches
- by usclimey September 19, 2008 11:54 AM EDT
- For every al Quaeda these tcatics do away with a whole bunch more people join the we hate America side. Can''t anyone see this is a bad idea. All you veterans out there - why would you call in an air strike when you''ve already neutralized the target?
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