McClatchy: U.S. choppers kill ... who? Enemy or innocents?

[babylonsister]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/18249.html

U.S. choppers kill ... who? Enemy or innocents?
By Hannah Allam and Jenan Hussein | McClatchy Newspapers



BAGHDAD, Iraq — This much is agreed upon: at least six Iraqis died overnight Saturday when American attack helicopters pounded a cluster of homes in a dusty, nondescript neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Baghdad.

But the story of why those homes were targeted and who was killed depends on the storyteller.

The U.S. military said the dead were insurgents and the homes in the Husseiniya district probably served as weapons depots; troops observed seven or more secondary explosions after the air assault. By the military's tally, six fighters were killed and five wounded.

Iraqi residents told a different version: the dead came from two Shiite Muslim families who lived in an area controlled by the powerful Mahdi Army militia. The bodies pulled from the rubble, locals say, were ordinary parents killed with their children in the middle of the night. Locals counted 11 corpses - two men, two women, and seven children. Another 10 were injured. Some Iraqi authorities put the death toll as high as 18.

In Iraq, where new bombings occur before authorities can even investigate the previous day's violence, the truth about Husseiniya might never come to light. Roadblocks erected around the neighborhood prevented reporters from reaching the scene.

"Lies, lies, lies," sputtered Salam al Rubaiye, 35, a computer technician who lives in Husseiniya and works in Sadr City. "The Americans always try to change the truth, especially when it concerns the Sadrists," the collective name for followers of the Mahdi Army commander, cleric Muqtada al Sadr.

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[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. The people we liberated are now the enemy.

[partylessinOhio]

2. Killing families is so Bush. He needs to go to hell for all the deaths and

blood on his hands.

I am ashamed that my country kills innocent people. Save your artillery - 2 men, 2 women and 7 children are innocents.

:cry:

[atreides1]

3. Yes he does need to go to hell

And he needs to take anyone who pulls the trigger in anything but self defense, sorry folks the ones who pull the triggers and drop the ordanance at night don't get pass from me.

Remember the SS was doing it's duty by following orders as well!