11 Killed in U.S. Raid South of Samarra

[warpedskydiver 0]

11 Killed in U.S. Raid South of Samarra
By ZIAD KHALAF, Associated Press Writer
2 hours ago

ISAHAQI, Iraq - Eleven people _ most women and children _ were killed when a house was bombed during a U.S. raid north of Baghdad early Wednesday, police and relatives said.

The U.S. military acknowledged four deaths _ a man, two women and a child _ in the raid that they said netted an insurgent suspect in the rural Isahaqi area, about 50 miles north of the capital.

The victims, some wrapped in blankets, were driven in the back of three pickup trucks to the Tikrit General Hospital, about 45 miles to the north, relatives said.

Associated Pres photographs showed the bodies of two men, five children and four other covered figures arriving at the hospital accompanied by grief-stricken relatives.

Riyadh Majid, who identified himself as the nephew of the killed head of the family _ Faez Khalaf _ told AP at the hospital that U.S. forces landed in helicopters and raided the home early Wednesday.

Khalaf's brother, Ahmed, said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were unidentified visitors.

"The killed family was not part of the resistance; they were women and children," Ahmed Khalaf said. "The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death."

The U.S. military said it was targeting and captured an individual suspected of supporting foreign fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq.

"Troops were engaged by enemy fire as they approached the building," said Tech. Sgt. Stacy Simon, a military spokeswoman. "Coalition forces returned fire utilizing both air and ground assets. The targeted individual was detained during this raid."

The building and a vehicle were destroyed, the military said.

Police Capt. Laith Mohammed, in nearby Samarra, said American warplanes and armor were used in the strike, which destroyed the house. The 11 people inside were killed, he said.

An AP reporter at the scene said the roof of the house collapsed, three cars were destroyed and two cows were killed.

[rhys 0]

This reminds me of an in incidence where a fellow was drunk and breaking windows with a golf club. so the police shot him to death beacase he was a threat to them.

so much for training and intellegence, shoot first ask questions later.

I wouldn't be suprised if there was never a shot fired from the house first either. when i was watching OPERATION FREEDOM FARTY PANTS or what ever the GW administration called it. LIVE on television the camera was pointed at a small fortified(by a mud brick wall) town in Iraq and nothing was happening. the camera was turned 90degrees to the left and showed only dessert. 2 minutes later there were sounds of explosions and gunfire. 10 mins later the camera turned 90degrees back to the right and there was fuck all left of the village but craters and smokestacks.

the commentary said that a shot was fired from the village and the assult was in defense.

Funny how the camera was turned before and gun shots were heard. How stupid do the U.S. military think people are? maybe the U.S. have bread ignorance into thier socioty but not all of the world is like that.

Now i'm not saying there wasn't a 'Baddy' in that house but surley if they apprehended the person they wanted alive, then it was unessecary to kill those children especially. The story for the defese is weak, predictable and does not add up.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[kelpdiver 2]

the ambiguiety in the story is that the building was destroyed, yet they caught their man.

But given how sloppy reporting of details is for a lot of things in the world, I can't tell if that means something shady, or just incomplete information. The opposition does a lot to increase collateral damage to generate stories like this.

[champu 1]

What in the... I'm trying to read this AP news story, but it's utterly laughable.

They've just randomly intermingled bits and pieces of news stories from other bombings (insurgent/terrorist suicide bombings, not U.S. bombings,) extra support being pulled in to cover the Arba'een pilgrimage, and driving bans, completely obfuscating the scale of the story in the headline.

I think this shows horrendous disregard for objectivity by both the author and the AP.

Quote

11 reported killed in U.S. raid north of Baghdad
Attack said to kill mostly women, children; bicycle bomber kills 2 elsewhere

ISAHAQI, Iraq - U.S. forces flattened a house during a raid north of Baghdad early Wednesday, killing 11 people — mostly women and children, while insurgent attacks elsewhere left four dead, police and relatives said.

The U.S. military acknowledged the raid and said it captured one insurgent. It took place near Balad, about 50 miles north of the capital. But the military said only four people were killed — a man, two women and a child.

Authorities in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, imposed a six-day driving ban starting Thursday to protect pilgrims from a wave of sectarian killing.

The U.S. military is dispatching an Army battalion of about 700 soldiers to Iraq from their base in Kuwait to provide extra security for pilgrimages connected to Monday’s holiday, officers said in Washington.

Monday marks the end of the 40-day mourning period after the death of Imam Hussein in A.D. 680. He was the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and was killed in Karbala in present-day Iraq. Increased attacks marked the celebration, which draws thousands, in 2004 and 2005.

The decision to add the armored unit, perhaps for as little as 30 days, is in contrast to the Bush administration’s hopes to substantially draw down the U.S. military presence in Iraq. There are about 133,000 troops here.

Police Capt. Laith Mohammed, in nearby Samarra, said American warplanes and armor were used in the strike, which flattened the house and killed the 11 people inside.

An AP reporter at the scene in the rural Isahaqi area said the roof of the house collapsed, three cars were destroyed and two cows killed.

Eleven bodies, wrapped in blankets, were taken in three pickup trucks to the Tikrit General Hospital, about 45 miles to the north, relatives said.

Associated Press photographs showed the bodies of two men, five children and four other covered figures arriving at the hospital accompanied by grief-stricken relatives. The victims were covered in dust with bits of rubble in their hair.

Riyadh Majid, who said he was the nephew of the killed head of the family — Faez Khalaf — told AP that U.S. forces landed in helicopters and raided the home early Wednesday. Khalaf’s brother, Ahmed, said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were visitors.

“The killed family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children,” Ahmed Khalaf said. “The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death.”

The U.S. military said it was targeting and captured an individual suspected of supporting foreign fighters for the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist network.

“Troops were engaged by enemy fire as they approached the building,” said Tech. Sgt. Stacy Simon. “Coalition forces returned fire utilizing both air and ground assets.”

Bombs killed four more people and injured dozens Wednesday in Baghdad and north of the capital.

Three explosions hit Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. A suicide bomber on a bicycle missed a police patrol, killing two civilians and injuring six others, police said. The provincial command said the explosives appeared to have detonated prematurely as the cyclist approached the patrol.

Later, an explosion in a cell phone shop killed two more people and injured 12, police said.

Another bomb targeting a police patrol injured two officers, police said.

The Iraqi army hit back Wednesday, arresting about 20 suspects and confiscating weapons in a dawn raid in a nearby farming area, said Lt. Col. Tarik Muhei.

Late Tuesday, a roadside bomb exploded as Ali Karim, an official with the Shiite Badr group, drove through Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad. He was unhurt but his son was killed and nine other people were injured, said police Brig. Sarhad Qadir. The Badr group is linked to a Shiite militia accused of widespread abuses by Sunni Muslims.

The deaths of 87 men were blamed on deepening sectarian violence in recent days — most of them shot to death execution-style. Twenty-nine of the bodies were dug out of a single grave Tuesday in a Shiite neighborhood of east Baghdad.

The timing of the killings linked much of the bloodshed to revenge slayings for a bomb and mortar attack in a Baghdad Shiite slum that killed 58 and wounded more than 200 on Sunday.

Revenge was swift in some cases, and on Monday and Tuesday, police uncovered the bodies, marking the second wave of sectarian retribution killings since bombers destroyed the golden dome of a Shiite shrine in Samarra on Feb. 23. More than 500 people were reported killed, many of them Sunni Muslims and their clerics. Dozens of mosques were damaged or destroyed.

Underlining the uneasiness in Baghdad, Interior Ministry officials imposed another driving ban — from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 4 p.m. Thursday — to guard against bombings while the Iraqi parliament holds its first session since the Dec. 15 election.

After the driving ban was announced, the Cabinet said Thursday would be a holiday in the capital. Restrictions on movement also were put in place on the two weekends after the Samarra bombing.

Scores of frightened Shiite families have fled predominantly Sunni parts of Baghdad in recent weeks, some at gunpoint.

On Tuesday, the U.S. command reported the deaths of two more soldiers in fighting in insurgent-infested Anbar province. That raised the death toll of U.S. military members killed since the start of the war in March 2003 to 2,310, according to an AP count.

[kallend 2,150]

Quote

What in the... I'm trying to read this AP news story, but it's utterly laughable.

They've just randomly intermingled bits and pieces of news stories from other bombings (insurgent/terrorist suicide bombings, not U.S. bombings,) extra support being pulled in to cover the Arba'een pilgrimage, and driving bans, completely obfuscating the scale of the story in the headline.

I think this shows horrendous disregard for objectivity by both the author and the AP.

I could not find the exact version you quoted, but the version I found, while showing a disregard for style, structure, and the English language in general, seemed quite objective.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 3,120]

From MSNBC:

---------------
50 aircraft, 1,500 soldiers attack targets north of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said on Thursday it had launched its biggest air offensive in Iraq since the 2003 invasion of the country.

A military statement said the operation involving more than 50 aircraft and 1,500 Iraqi and U.S. troops as well as 200 tactical vehicles targeted suspected insurgents operating in Salah ad din, located 60 miles north of Baghdad.
----------------

But I'm sure things are great in Iraq. We are really turning the corner now. The insurgency is clearly in its last throes. Sure, the insurgency _seems_ bigger, but that's just a temporary increase in violence because they hate freedom/democracy/americans/puppies.

From Knight-Ridder:
--------------------------------------
Osama Jadaan al Dulaimi, a tribal leader in the western town of Karabilah, a town near the Syrian border that was hit with bombs or missiles on at least 17 days between October 2005 and February 2006, said the bombings had created enemies.

"The people of Karabilah hate the foreigners who crossed the border and entered their areas and got into a fight with the Americans," al Dulaimi said. "The residents now also hate the American occupiers who demolished their houses with bombs and killed their families ... and now the people of Karabilah want to join the resistance against the Americans for what they did."
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Once we kill all THESE new insurgents, though, I am sure that the rest of the Iraqis will greet us with open arms.

[kelpdiver 2]

Quote

I could not find the exact version you quoted, but the version I found, while showing a disregard for style, structure, and the English language in general, seemed quite objective.

An unedited news story is probably best left ignored. Too difficult to draw out the facts.

[Skyrad 0]

Quote

Eleven people _ most women and children _ were killed

Don't worry no one counts civillians.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca