8 family members killed by U.S. copter fire southeast of Kirkuk

[sabra]

Source: Voice of Iraq

Kirkuk, Feb 15, (VOI) – Eight members of the same family were killed by U.S. helicopter fire southwest of Kirkuk on Friday, an official police source said.

"Two U.S. helicopters opened fire at a house in al-Zab area, al-Huweija district, (70 km) south of Kirkuk, killing eight civilians of the same family who were inside the house at the time," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

"Unidentified persons opened fire at the two U.S. helicopters, which fired back," the source said, not determining whether the attacked house was the source of the fire.

"So far we are not certain whether the fire opened at the U.S. helicopters were from that house or another nearby place," indicated the source, adding the fatalities were two men, a woman and five children.

Read more: http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=69702&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

[Barrett808]

1. McCain: "A hundred more years of victory!" n/t

[leftchick]

2. peaceful Kirkuk?

fuck. :(

[Roy]

3. A woman 5 children and 2 terrorist????

This, I believe may be the first time that a report has mentioned Iraqi men as civilians.

But, I am sure Dana Perino will set the record straight soon.

[gratuitous]

4. "We don't know where the shots came from, but fired back anyway"

Yeah, another hundred years of grind to break down the military so that they're so scared or so "who gives a fuck" they just shoot indiscriminately into civilian populations. Two men, one woman and five children later, it's a shrug, a vague promise to look into the matter, and three years from now, the comrades and pals of the murderers will let them off the hook, and they'll return to civilian life stateside.

And when the survivors of the victims get righteously angry enough, we can say that they hate us for our freedom.

[Ilsa]

5. Eight "terrorists" were killed, but 48 terrorists were created. nt

[JohnyCanuck]

6. It's not the first time and it certainly won't be the last.

The "Good War" is a Bad War

by John Pilger

SNIP

Acclaimed as the first “victory” in the “war on terror”, the attack on Afghanistan in October 2001 and its ripple effect caused the deaths of thousands of civilians who, even more than Iraqis, remain invisible to western eyes. The family of Gulam Rasul is typical. It was 7.45am on 21 October. The headmaster of a school in the town of Khair Khana, Rasul had just finished eating breakfast with his family and had walked outside to chat to a neighbour. Inside the house were his wife, Shiekra, his four sons, aged three to ten, his brother and his wife, his sister and her husband. He looked up to see an aircraft weaving in the sky, then his house exploded in a fireball behind him. Nine people died in this attack by a US F-16 dropping a 500lb bomb. The only survivor was his nine-year-old son, Ahmad Bilal. “Most of the people killed in this war are not Taliban; they are innocents,” Gulam Rasul told me. “Was the killing of my family a mistake? No, it was not. They fly their planes and look down on us, the mere Afghan people, who have no planes, and they bomb us for our birthright, and with all contempt.”

There was the wedding party in the village of Niazi Qala, 100km south of Kabul, to celebrate the marriage of the son of a respected farmer. By all accounts it was a wonderfully boisterous affair, with music and singing. The roar of aircraft started when everyone was asleep, at about three in the morning. According to a United Nations report, the bombing lasted two hours and killed 52 people: 17 men, ten women and 25 children, many of whom were found blown to bits where they had desperately sought refuge, in a dried-up pond. Such slaughter is not uncommon, and these days the dead are described as “Taliban”; or, if they are children, they are said to be “partly to blame for being at a site used by militants” – according to the BBC, speaking to a US military spokesman.

The British military have played an important part in this violence, having stepped up high-altitude bombing by up to 30 per cent since they took over command of Nato forces in Afghanistan in May 2006. This translated to more than 6,200 Afghan deaths last year. In December, a contrived news event was the “fall” of a “Taliban stronghold”, Musa Qala, in southern Afghanistan. Puppet government forces were allowed to “liberate” rubble left by American B-52s.

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=470

[LynnTheDem]

7. 5 children.

Send your "debt of gratitude" to George W. bUsh, people of Iraq.

Those who remain, that is.