Shotgun wedding

US raids Iraqi safe house
From correspondents in Washington
May 20, 2004

PENTAGON officials said they had no information about an air attack that was reported to have killed 40 people celebrating a marriage in a village near the Iraqi-Syrian border.

But US forces raided a suspected safe house for foreign fighters in the open desert near the border, seizing large quantities of currency, foreign passports and sophisticated communications devices, a defence official said.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the raid occurred at about 3am local time (9am AEST) about 25 kilometres from the Syrian border. The nearest town was Husaybah, the official said.

"During the operation, the coalition forces came under hostile fire, and returned fire," he said.

"Coalition forces on the ground recovered a large amount of Iraqi and Syrian currency, foreign passports and sophisticated communications equipment," he said.

In Dubai, Al Arabiya television said witnesses said an air strike killed 40 Iraqis celebrating a marriage.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_...5E1702,00.html

"US planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us," an unidentified man who said he was from the village said on al-Arabiya.

"They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they levelled the whole village. No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening," he added.

The Dubai-based network also showed those who survived digging graves for the numerous men, women and children that died in the raid.

A local police official told AP news agency between 42 and 45 people had died as a result of the US attack.

The US has said it has no knowledge of the alleged attack but says US forces did conduct a raid on a house in the border area. In Baghdad, a US military spokesman said the allegation was being investigated.

In July 2002, an American air strike on an Afghan wedding party killed 48 civilians.

A report released by the US Central Command said the strike was justified because American planes had come under fire.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...0339A14320.htm

US denial over wedding deaths
By Scheherezade Faramarzi in Baghdad
May 20, 2004

US aircraft have fired on a house in the desert near the Syrian border killing more than 40 people who, according to Iraqi officials, were part of a wedding party.

The US military said the target was a suspected safehouse for foreign fighters from Syria, but Iraqis said a helicopter had attacked a wedding party.

Associated Press Television News footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled one on top of the other.

Several were children, one of whom was decapitated. The body of a girl who appeared to be less than five years of age lay in a white sheet, her legs riddled with wounds and her dress soaked in blood.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_...E31317,00.html

Happened in Afghanistan as well, old habits are hard to break.

I was expecting a story about a pregnant girl, the fellow who put her in such condition, and the girl's angry father. I think I heard about this story recently, but I don't consider the death of innocents any less significant due to what they were attending.

I wonder if these people in Iraq were shooting weapons in the air as well.

Does that matter?

"The US planes dropped more than 100 bombs on us," an unidentified man who said he was from the village said on Al Arabiya. "They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they levelled the whole village. No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening," he added.

Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said revelers had fired volleys of gunfire into the air in a traditional wedding celebration before the attack took place. American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.

The area, a desolate region populated only by shepherds, is popular with smugglers, including weapons smugglers, and the U.S. military suspects militants use it as a route to slip in from Syria to fight the Americans. It is under constant surveillance by American forces.

Such information could lead to avoidance of such events in the future.

How come? It is tradition in the area and US helicopters fire from a distance away that they cannot be heard from, and the US army knows pretty well it is such a tradition. They could have avoided it if they wanted to instead of being trigger happy.

Fire guns in the air in a war zone, even if it is tradition, is a highly dangerous (and one might argue stupid) thing to do. they cannot be heard from? The guns they are firing in the air you mean????

Every news agency seems to be carrying this story. Everyone except the USA says it happened. The USA says it never happened.

They were also on some remote place not far from the Syrian border, not a place like Baghdad, Fallujah, or some other hotbed. So the chance terrorists are holding a tupperware party there exchanging AK47s and RPGs is pretty small, they could have checked out before they decided to blow the place to smithereens.

Anyone considering the possibility that it was both a terrorist safehouse and a wedding (besides Njorl)? Remember, terrorists hide by blending in amongst civilians. Heck, they had a good example in Saddam: he built major military facilities under hospitals and schools, hid tanks in residential neighborhoods and weapons in schools.

So the chance terrorists are holding a tupperware party there exchanging AK47s and RPGs is pretty small,