U.S. officer: Coalition forces 'likely' killed four Iraqis in taxi

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. officer: Coalition forces 'likely' killed four Iraqis in taxi

PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, January 13, 2004



(01-13) 01:18 PST TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) --

Coalition forces "likely" shot and killed four Iraqi civilians, including a 7-year-old boy, in a taxi earlier this month, a senior U.S. Army officer said Tuesday.

A preliminary inquiry into the shooting indicates that a heavy-caliber machine gun was used in the Jan. 3 attack, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, a local commander. The report has been sent to military headquarters in Baghdad.

"I think it is likely that coalition forces were involved ... as a heavy-caliber machine gun was used," said Russell, who is based in Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, 110 miles north of Baghdad.

Russell suggested anti-coalition insurgents were not involved, saying they could not have concealed a high-caliber weapon from his soldiers on one of Tikrit's roads.

But none of the U.S. troops in the area reported the shooting -- as required by military regulations.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/01/13/international0418EST0446.DTL

[w13rd0]

1. Maybe it was Dynacorp....

...testing some of their new toys.

[xchrom]

2. the never ending nightmare

[amber dog democrat]

3. But we are bringing democracy

and freedom to these folks. Only terrorists hate us because of OUR freedoms and if we are free to accidentlly kill a few civilians, well.... sorry about that.
You can't win the hearts and minds with out indiscriminatley killing innocent people.
Everyone knows that.

[dicknbush]

4. There is a clear pattern here in relation to information

Whenever there is an event that can possiblly put a bad light on the Occupying Forces of the United States and it's allies the standard line is. "We are investigating this inciednt and at this time we have no information that inicates our troops were involved" Or...We have no information that the helicopter that crashed was the result of enemy fire. Then a few days or even a week latter the truth comes out (Which I am sure they knew from the beggining I mean with this incident it was a convoy travelling with any number of troops who were witnesses. How long does it take to ask the question What happened?) Any way the incident looses it's viseral moment and Dumb Amercans can't be bothered after a 24 hour news cycle because of course we must know where Michael had his pee pee!!