Four Children Killed by Gunfire After Iraq Attack

[floda]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four schoolchildren were killed by gunfire in Baghdad on Sunday, shortly after a roadside bomb ripped through a U.S. military vehicle, witnesses said.
Some witnesses said the children, all aged around 12, were shot dead by U.S. troops who had opened fire randomly after the blast on Canal Street in eastern Baghdad.

more

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4930388


More operation winning hearts and minds? x(

[gottaB]

1. updates from Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4930526

http://www.sabcnews.com/world/the_middle_east/0,2172,78607,00.html

The say the children and other were "celebrating" the attack. They have confirmations of the deaths from a hospital.

[thebigidea]

2. with a bit of bad luck, we can turn all of DU into the I/P forum by fall!

Quick, somebody start defending this "tragic, regrettable loss that could have been prevented had these so-called children been in school."

[wellst0nev0ter]

3. Please, Don't Give Them Any Ideas

:eyes:

[thebigidea]

4. Betcha this thread will be full of it by lunchtime

"Taste red hot FREEDOM, Iraqi SCUM!"
- Paul Bremer, Apocryphal

[ClintonTyree]

5. I'm sure.............

they justify it in their minds by saying, 'that's four less future terrorists'. I don't think they even give a damn anymore, collateral damage and all, you know.

[leftchick]

6. Here is a child who survived the madness on Saturday...

[VolcanoJen]

7. "Krazy Kimmet" says the children were shot by Iraqis on rooftops.

Just reported on "This Week" with George Stephanopolous. ABC says witnesses say the children were shot to death by American troops; Kimmett says the children were taking items from the burning vehicle, and were shot by Iraqis on nearby rooftops.

WTF is he talking about? Does that make any damn sense?

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. "Kimmett says" - well, that's right up there with "Bush says"

.
.
.

I've watched Kimmitt say more than once that regarding Fallujah "we'll kill them" and he looks like he just WANTS to kill.

As for believing Kimmitt over anyone else, not gonna happen here!

As for the increasing reports of Iraqi's "celebrating" casualties of coalition forces - -

Is the USA ever going to get the message?

They don't WANT the coalition there,

and coalition deaths will continue until they leave.

and so will Iraqi deaths

(sigh)

[PfcHammer]

11. "Fainting Krazy Kimmitt" says... if you can't hack it, change the channel.

at ease, soldier.

[leftchick]

17. Krazy Killer Kimmitt is fucking confused...

perhaps he is still feeling woozy from all of the death and destruction...I wonder if this child is dead...




Children near the burning Humvee were caught in crossfire


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5D061EF4-6F37-4C61-BFE2-B6CC5C76E9AD.htm

<snip>
Civilians, including children, and a US soldier have been killed and three wounded in a roadside bomb blast followed by a gun battle in Baghdad.

The children were killed after being caught in the crossfire of a gun battle that followed the blast on Sunday, a US occupation military spokesman said.

The spokesman said it was not possible to establish how many civilians had died as other Iraqis rapidly removed the bodies.

"One of our Task Force Baghdad soldiers was killed and three others were wounded as a result of an improvised explosive device explosion," said Lieutenant-Colonel James Hutton, spokesman for the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division.

He said occupation troops who later sought to recover the Humvee vehicle damaged in the blast returned fire after being targeted from rooftops.

"Civilians, apparently including children, were caught in the crossfire," the spokesman said.

He said the first group of soldiers was travelling in a convoy in Baghdad when the roadside bomb blew up. The dead and wounded were swiftly evacuated.

When other troops arrived to recover the Humvee, children were inside the vehicle, looting parts, said Hutton, adding that they dispersed as the soldiers arrived.

"The soldiers then received fire from rooftops and returned fire. The children moved back to the Humvee," he said, indicating that was the point at which they were caught in the crossfire.

[Moderator]

18. leftchick

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

DU Moderator

[leftchick]

19. I am so sorry...

It is too late to edit. :(

[dArKeR]

9. aWol's failed leadership is to blame. No matter where the bullets

actually came from.

[teryang]

10. Notice how these reports are not followed by

...any statement that there will be a follow-up investigation to retrieve any bullets retained in the corpses for comparison with the firearms of American soldiers and/or Iraqi soldiers/police involved in the incident? This is what loss of control and lack of security is all about.

There is not even the allegation that this is collateral damage.

I have a theory. Take the number of children killed or maimed in any one incident, square it, and you have the number of future guerilla attacks in the immediate area.

[Judi Lynn]

12. I would imagine this article refers to floda's original posted article

But it seems rearranged, with no designated dead kids:

Posted on Sun, Apr. 25, 2004





Roadside bomb kills U.S. soldier in Iraq

Associated Press


BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb exploded by a U.S. patrol in Baghdad on Sunday, killing a U.S. soldier and sparking a gunbattle in the vicinity of Iraqi children, the military said.

After the bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, U.S. troops evacuated the slain soldier, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters. When the troops return to retrieve the stricken vehicle, they found several children on it, taking material, he said.

As the troops approached the vehicle, gunmen on neighboring rooftops opened fire, sparking a battle with the soldiers, he said.

Witnesses reported Iraqi casualties in the fight, but it was not immediately known if any of the children were among them.
(snip/...)

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8517691.htm
(Free registration required)

The final line says that with this death, there are 110 for April now.

[markses]

13. We must understand this as a structural effect of occupation

And not as a moral failing of the troops. Too many here cling to archaic moral understandings of agency and are thus trapped into blaming so-and-so for these events. This is a rather poor operation, in my view. The trigger that produces both the roadside bomb and the response are written or programmed into the occupation as a particular form of organization or practice, and while it is not wholly determinative, it does produce a series of consistencies. The problem is that everyone defaults to a notion of "free-will" (the soldiers could have chosen not to shoot, the insurgents could have chosen not to place the IED), as if no force of compulsion was involved. This is childish thinking at best, full on resentment at worst. Of course, the bad reading of this is that no one is to blame, so we should do nothing. This bad reading only makes sense if one assumes that action presupposes personal blame - an assumption without any grounding. Our action should be geared not toward personal blame, but toward transforming the conditions that produce these kinds of events: the occupation strictly speaking.

That said, Kimmet's explanation is, of course, lacking any sense at all: it is a supreme non-sequitor common to military bureaucrats everywhere (the organization of military bureaucracy produces such nonsenses, not Kimmett himself - military bureaucracy in the condition of colonial occupation speaks through Kimmett; he is merely picked up and swept away by it).

[gottaB]

14. Iraq is a war of Choice

It's a crime, not a necessity.

The consistencies "programmed" into the occupation, as it were, were entirely predictable--as consistencies, and therefore to be avoided.

Kimmit and Krew have special responsibilities because of their power and position.

[gottaB]

15. update (Al Jazeera)

Baghdad Children Killed in Crossfire

[DrWeird]

16. So US troops are now shooting kids.

Well, they were before, but now it's harder to deny.

What was that about comparing Fallujah to Nanking?

[paulk]

20. It's not possible to know who shot the children

without an autopsy.

And it happened in Bahgdad, not Fallujah.

[gottaB]

21. Update: Many Versions, Obscure Truth (NYT)

Attack in Iraq: Many Versions, Obscure Truth

[bobthedrummer]

22. George W. Bush aka The War President is solely responsible.

USMC are being used to take reprisals for mercenaries employed by The War President, to shut down newspapers, to target the world press, etc. all this does is increase anti-Americanism, bring the troops home ASAP.:grr: