FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) ? A senior officer of the U.S.-backed Fallujah Brigade on Sunday disputed U.S. claims that an American airstrike had hit a safehouse of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network.
The Health Ministry said at least 16 people were killed in the attack Saturday; witnesses put the number of dead at least 20, including women and children.
Col. Mohammed Awad said members of the Fallujah Brigade had investigated the site and "affirmed to us that the inhabitants of the houses were ordinary families including women, children and elders."
"There was no sign that foreigners have lived in the house," Awad said.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, told reporters Saturday that multiple intelligence sources reported that the house was used by the al-Zarqawi network, which U.S. officials believe operates in Fallujah.
The discrepant versions of the attack could strain relations between the Americans and the Iraqi force established last month to take responsibility for law and order in Fallujah after the end of the three-week Marine siege.
Marines besieged Fallujah in April after four American security contractors were killed in an ambush in the city and their bodies mutilated. Ten Marines and hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died before the siege was lifted and security was handed over to the Fallujah Brigade.
Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant thought to have ties to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for a string of car bombs across Iraq, including a blast Thursday that killed 35 people and wounded 145 at an Iraqi military recruiting center in Baghdad.
Iraqi military officers in the city of Fallujah say there is no sign any insurgents were in a house flattened during a U.S. attack that reportedly killed at least 20 civilians.
The Iraqi officers say Sunday women and children were among those killed, but an investigation produced no evidence foreign insurgents had used the house.
Falluja's police chief and a senior officer in the Falluja Brigade in charge of security in the fiercely anti-U.S. town denied that foreign fighters had operated from the house.
"We inspected the damage, we looked through the bodies of the women and children and elderly. This was a family," Brigadier Nouri Aboud of the Falluja Brigade told Reuters.
"There is no sign of foreigners having lived in the house. Zarqawi and his men have no presence in Falluja."
Yesterday's raid on Fallujah is troubling because of the raw memories it has stirred up of the hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed there by the Americans in April. It bore the hallmark of a revenge attack straight out of the Israeli book - engendering an incensed reaction similar to that of Palestinians on the receiving of Israeli air raids in Gaza and the West Bank.
The United States has blamed the suspected al-Qa'ida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for the recent car bombings, including Thursday's attack in Baghdad. US officials have also been saying for several days that they suspect al-Zarqawi is hiding out in Fallujah.
The impact of these events on US public opinion remains to be seen. Media coverage of the Fallujah raid was relatively muted yesterday, in part because the US military refused to comment or give details of what happened and in part because the news was dominated by the beheading of the kidnapped military contractor Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia.
Col. Mohammed Awad said members of the Fallujah Brigade had investigated the site and "affirmed to us that the inhabitants of the houses were ordinary families including women, children and elders."
Pretty sure that Col Awads intel isn't nearly as comprehensive as Gen Kimmits.
Originally posted by: NesuD
Col. Mohammed Awad said members of the Fallujah Brigade had investigated the site and "affirmed to us that the inhabitants of the houses were ordinary families including women, children and elders."
News flash!! It was a safe house It is supposed to have ordinary looking occupants. Fact is there is a large portion of that towns population that are active participants in the militant movement there. Pretty sure that Col Awads intel isn't nearly as comprehensive as Gen Kimmits. Intersesting to see how the media automatically characterizes this as fact when the fact is they don't really know anything about the strike for certain.
an investigation produced no evidence foreign insurgents had used the house.
Originally posted by: 11thHour
I think the moral to the story is to never trust our military leaders to account for anything. They are as bad as the bush administration in spreading disinformation and looking the other way when they are wrong.
Originally posted by: BugsBunny1078
16 steps closer to peace.
Originally posted by: BugsBunny1078
16 steps closer to peace.
Originally posted by: BugsBunny1078
16 steps closer to peace.
Originally posted by: Gaard
Originally posted by: BugsBunny1078
16 steps closer to peace.
including women and children.
You're an asshole, Bugs.
Originally posted by: Corn
From the looks of this thread, there's gonna be lots of spitting at the troops when they return home.
Question: Lets say Kerry wins the election and we bomb another house full of "women and children"..... any of you morons gonna decree that whomever Commander Joe is at the time who claims otherwise has "zero credibility" and sarcastically reply about the "World's finest at work...."
IMHO Bugs is no worse than the rest of you assholes. Fsck you.
Originally posted by: AnImuS
why didnt they just raid the house using special ops?
Cheaper then the missiles too.
Originally posted by: Corn
From the looks of this thread, there's gonna be lots of spitting at the troops when they return home.
Question: Lets say Kerry wins the election and we bomb another house full of "women and children"..... any of you morons gonna decree that whomever Commander Joe is at the time who claims otherwise has "zero credibility" and sarcastically reply about the "World's finest at work...."
IMHO Bugs is no worse than the rest of you assholes. Fsck you.