News Was Anyone Surprised by US Missile Hitting Refugee Bus in 2003?

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A US missile reportedly struck a passenger bus carrying Syrian civilians fleeing the Iraq war, resulting in five deaths and ten injuries, according to Syria's official news agency. The incident occurred near the Syrian border, and while a US Central Command spokeswoman did not confirm the report, she emphasized that US forces aim to avoid civilian casualties and utilize precision-guided missiles for military targeting. The injured were treated in a Syrian hospital, while the deceased were taken to Damascus for identification by relatives. The discussion also highlighted Syria's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq and its calls for a peaceful resolution regarding Iraq's weapons. Additionally, four Iraqi diplomats and their families were expelled from Jordan for security reasons, marking a significant diplomatic action amid the ongoing conflict. The conversation touched on the fallibility of American military operations, with some participants noting that the perception of American forces as infallible is misguided.
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US missile hits bus: report
March 24, 2003

A US missile hit a passenger bus carrying Syrian civilians fleeing the war in Iraq, killing five and injuring 10, Syria's official news agency reported.

The agency reported that the air-to-surface missile hit the bus yesterday morning in Iraq close to the Syrian border.

A US Central Command spokeswoman had no information on the report that a missile had hit a bus.

She said, however, that US forces do not target civilians, and that their targeting is done very carefully, using precision-guided missiles, to select military targets.

The Syrian agency said the wounded were taken to a Syrian hospital on the Syrian-Iraqi border, while the dead were sent to a hospital on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, where officials said relatives have retrieved the bodies.

Some "wounded were treated here and then taken (to their homes) in the (northern Syrian) cities of Hama and Aleppo," Dr Abdullah al-Salhi, director general of the Douma hospital near Damascus, told The Associated Press.

Syria, which strongly opposes the US-led war on Iraq, has repeatedly called for a peaceful solution of the Iraq-US dispute over Baghdad's weapons arsenal.

Meanwhile, four Iraqi diplomats and their families arrived in the Syrian city of Daraa, 120km south of Damascus, after neighbouring Jordan ordered them to leave on Saturday, the Syrian agency reported.

The four diplomats were among five officials attached to the Iraqi Embassy in Jordan whom authorities expelled for actions "incompatible" with their diplomatic duties.

Jordanian authorities said the expulsions, the first of Iraqi officials by an Arab state, were ordered for "security" reasons and independently to a US request to close Iraqi embassies in 60 countries and expel their diplomats.

The Associated Press

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6181930%255E25777,00.html
 
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Originally posted by russ_watters
Point...?

I think the point is that American troops aren't some sort of perfect, magical force that cannot make mistakes.
 
I think the point is that American troops aren't some sort of perfect, magical force that cannot make mistakes.
Oh, ok. Was anyone under the impression Americans were super-human?
 
Originally posted by russ_watters
Oh, ok. Was anyone under the impression Americans were super-human?
Some people do seem to think that anything that has an American flag attached to it is infallible.
 
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I believe it was the summer of 2001 that I made a trip to Peru for my work. I was a private contractor doing automation engineering and programming for various companies, including Frito Lay. Frito had purchased a snack food plant near Lima, Peru, and sent me down to oversee the upgrades to the systems and the startup. Peru was still suffering the ills of a recent civil war and I knew it was dicey, but the money was too good to pass up. It was a long trip to Lima; about 14 hours of airtime...

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