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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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 Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 11:51 pm Post subject: US troops defend raid, say Iraqis "faked" massacre |
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US troops defend raid, say Iraqis "faked" massacre
Mon Mar 27, 06:00 PM EST
By Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque.
"After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was. There's been huge misinformation," Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said.
He rejected the accusations of a massacre that prompted the Shi'ite-led government to demand U.S. forces cede control of security but declined to spell out which group he believed moved the bodies.
Government-run television has shown footage of bodies lying without weapons in what Shi'ite ministers say is a mosque compound run by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The security minister accused Iraqi and U.S. troops of killing 37 unarmed men.
Giving the first U.S. military briefing on Sunday's events in Baghdad, Chiarelli said the raid by about 50 Iraqi special forces troops backed by some 25 U.S. "advisers" had been the fruit of long intelligence work. But he said he did not know the religious affiliation of 16 "insurgents" who were killed.
An Iraqi was freed who had been taken hostage that day and threatened with death if he did not pay a $20,000 ransom, he said. Three fighters were wounded and 18 other people detained.
Chiarelli insisted the compound was not a mosque but an office complex. Neighbors and aides to Sadr call it a mosque and say it was once offices for Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
"There was gunfire from every room," he said.
Major General J.D. Thurman, whose division controls Baghdad, said: "If it was a mosque, why are they using it as a place to hold hostages?" He added that weapons, including 34 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also found.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/27032006/6/n-world-troops-defend-raid-say-iraqis-faked-massacre.html |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:37 am Post subject: |
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Iraqthemodel Blog has some opinions on this.
| Iraq the model wrote: |
Anyway, footage from the scene shows burned vehicles outside the husseiniya, empty smoke grenades and inside the place there were empty shells of BKC machine gun (the main gun mounted on most of the Iraqi army vehicles) the BKC is not a one-GI carried gun but is rather used as a supportive-fire kind of weaponry and if soldiers were to execute armless people this would not be their gun of choice because AK-47s or pistols could do the job with less noise and are much easier to carry and it makes more sense to think that this weapon was fired by the people who were hiding inside the husseiniya especially that this gun is abundant at the arsenals of militias.
Also the use of smoke grenades means the assault team was expecting-and likely encountered-resistance from inside the target building.
There's also the burned vehicles on the street which indicate there was gunfire coming from inside the building because the MNF report says that Iraqi soldiers were fired at "after they entered their objective" and it makes no sense at all to fire at the street behind you when you're under fire from the building you are already inside.
However, the best evidence that proves that members of Mehdi army were inside the building came from a prominent Sdarist parliamentarian and spokesman of the Sdar trend; Baha' al-Aaraji told al-Hurra this evening that "worshippers from inside the besieged husseiniya talked to us in person on the phone and asked for help��".
So I wonder why would 'innocent ordinary worshippers' have the personal phone numbers of parliament members and Sadr office officials?!! |
What seems likely is that Moqtada is trying not to let the government and US forces get away with a raid on his militia. |
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JeJuJitsu
Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Location: McDonald's
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| Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:50 am Post subject: |
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Not only were the Iraqis unarmed, but they were actually running a day care for wayward kittens and puppies, I'm sure.
They were interviewing bad lying "first-hand" witness types who were admitting one moment that they were fighting next door to the mosque, then upon a leading question by a reporter "Wasn't some fighting going on inside the mosque?" the guy then changes his story in a very liar-like way and is like, "oh yes, i mean they were in the mosque, yes. americans killing inside the mosque!"
Such BS, lying liars them Muslims... |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:01 am Post subject: |
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Such BS, lying liars them Muslims...
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Does that include the Muslims who(according to Bush et al) are so happy that America and her allies invaded Iraq? |
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JeJuJitsu
Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Location: McDonald's
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| Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:00 am Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
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Such BS, lying liars them Muslims...
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Does that include the Muslims who(according to Bush et al) are so happy that America and her allies invaded Iraq? |
Yes. |
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Porter_Goss
Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Location: The Wrong Side of Right
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| Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:01 pm Post subject: |
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| JeJuJitsu wrote: |
| On the other hand wrote: |
| Quote: |
Such BS, lying liars them Muslims...
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Does that include the Muslims who(according to Bush et al) are so happy that America and her allies invaded Iraq? |
Yes. |
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