Witnesses: Iraqi Forces Didn't Try To Halt Attack (Mahmoudiya massacre)

[Barrett808]

Witnesses: Iraqi Forces Didn't Try To Halt Attack
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi forces are accused of standing idly by while gunmen sprayed grenades and automatic weapons fire in a market south of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 50 people, most of them Shiites.

Women and children were among the dead and wounded in the assault in Mahmoudiya, hospital officials said. Late Monday, police said they found 12 bodies in different parts of town - possible victims of reprisal killings.

The violence continued today as a car bomb exploded outside a Shiite shrine in Kufa, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, killing 26 people and injuring 25 others, police and witnesses said.

The Mahmoudiya assault occurred a few hundred yards from Iraqi army and police positions, but the troops did not intervene until the attackers were fleeing, several witnesses said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals.

The witnesses, including municipal council members, said the attack began when gunmen - presumed to be Sunnis - fired on the funeral of a member of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia, killing nine mourners.

(more)

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-iraq0718.artjul18,0,349765.story?coll=hc-headlines-nationworld

[sabra]

1. k & r

[coalition_unwilling]

2. It's Vietnam on crack, I tell ya (eom)