Go to Original
Iraq Civilians Reportedly Among Sadr City Dead
By Tina Susman
The Los Angeles Times
Wednesday 30 April 2008
The US Army says the attacks killed only
militants, but photos show a child's body being pulled from the rubble.
Baghdad - The US Army said they were militants. Sadr City residents said at
least some were civilians, and photographs showed a dust-covered child being
pulled from a mountain of rubble after Tuesday's fighting.
Whatever the facts, at least 28 people were dead after the four-hour battle,
the latest killed in a showdown between US and Iraqi forces and Shiite Muslim
militiamen over recent weeks.
Based on the photographs, it appeared that at least one of the dead was a civilian.
In its captions, the Associated Press identified the boy in bloodied shorts
being carried from the ruins of a house as 2-year-old Ali Hussein. It said he
was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The brother-in-law of an Iraqi journalist who works with The Times also was
reported killed. The victim recently had moved his immediate family out of the
neighborhood because of the fighting.
The journalist, reached by phone Tuesday night, said he was at the funeral
and could not speak.
The destruction and death toll underscored the intensity of fighting in Sadr
City, where U.S. forces are pursuing militants who often operate from the narrow
alleyways and crowded residential sectors of the sprawling Shiite stronghold.
Clashes have occurred there nearly every day since the end of March, when an
Iraqi military crackdown on Shiite militias sparked an uprising by fighters
loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr.
With many of Sadr City's main roads peppered with roadside bombs and its side
streets too narrow for U.S. tanks or other heavy vehicles to navigate, U.S.
forces often call in airstrikes or use guided rockets to hit their targets.
Residents say civilians often are caught in the chaos.
The military says it does everything it can to avoid this. In a statement Tuesday,
a military spokesman responded angrily to the accusations that troops had killed
civilians in the latest battle.
"The rockets struck militants firing from buildings, alleyways and rooftops,"
Lt. Col. Steven Stover wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. "We
are NOT targeting law-abiding civilians. Those targeted were firing weapons
at U.S. soldiers."
Stover said the clashes began in the late morning as troops evacuating a wounded
U.S. soldier came under attack. Two bombs, followed by gunfire and rocket-propelled
grenade blasts, targeted the vehicle trying to get the wounded man to safety,
Stover said.
A third bomb hit another vehicle. U.S. forces responded with guided rockets
launched from the ground. Stover denied residents' claims that helicopters fired
on them from the air.
He said six Americans were hurt in the fighting, but their injuries weren't
life-threatening.
Early today, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two soldiers Tuesday
in the northwestern part of the capital. Separate statements said one was killed
by a roadside bomb and the other by gunfire. At least 4,058 U.S. service members
have been killed since the war began in March 2003, according to the independent
website icasualties.org.
In Sadr City, Abu Ahmed, a resident of Sector 10, said two rockets hit the
neighborhood, where many of the small homes are crowded with three or four families.
He said the first rocket demolished several homes in the middle of a block.
"When some people rushed to evacuate the people and the families who were
killed or injured, they were attacked by another rocket," Abu Ahmed said.
Violence also rocked Diyala province, a Sunni Muslim stronghold north of Baghdad.
Police said a female suicide bomber killed one person and injured five in the
village of Mukhisa. The victims were members of the local Sons of Iraq group,
men who have volunteered to work alongside U.S. and Iraqi forces to fight insurgents.
In Baghdad, assassins killed Dhia Jodi Jaber, the director general of the Ministry
of Labor and Social Affairs. Some reports said he was shot, but others said
a roadside bomb blast hit his motorcade.
The trial for one of the best known members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle,
former Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz, got underway in Baghdad but was quickly
adjourned until May 20.
Aziz, 72, is accused of ordering the executions of 42 merchants accused of
driving up prices for essential goods by violating state price controls in 1992.
He could face the death penalty if convicted.
He has been in custody since April 2003.
-------
Jump to today's Truthout Features:
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.
Print This Story
E-mail This Story