Posted by Andreas from dtm2-t9-1.mcbone.net (62.104.210.98) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 at 1:18PM :
In Reply to: 20 Assyrians killed in US bombing posted by Tiglath from 069.a.007.mel.iprimus.net.au (210.50.80.69) on Saturday, June 14, 2003 at 12:59PM :
Shlama David,
Yes, many thanks for bringing up this old stuff again.
At least, you seem to be catching up with events.
Your earlier and TIMELY intervention would have been more useful, indeed.
As to the facts:
APP already reported it.
Here from a second source:
" ... On April 2nd, Al Jazeera news network reported that Bartallah, a
predominantly Iraqi Christian town north of Mosul, suffered heavy civilian
casualties after a night of intense coalition bombing. The local chief
surgeon at the hospital reported that there were 120 dead and wounded
civilians brought into the hospital within the past week.
Al Jazeera showed footage of an Iraqi Christian with severe injuries to his
face and head. In the bed next to him lay his wife, who miscarried shortly
after being brought into the hospital. Local doctors said her face required
200 stitches and will likely be disfigured. The couple did not know at press
time that their three-year old daughter had died in the bombing. .."
Below an article form antiwar.com mentioning also Bartallah
Best
Andreas
------------------------------
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/atraqchi3.html
ANTIWAR, Thursday, April 3, 2003
Shedding No Tears for Iraqi Civilians
by Firas Al-Atraqchi
YellowTimes.org columnist
On March 31st, ten women and children were killed near Najaf when a van they
were in was riddled with fire from U.S. Marines who had tried to get it to
stop at a military checkpoint. After Saturday's suicide bombing that caused
the death of four U.S. Marines at another checkpoint, coalition forces are
now instructed to shoot at any vehicle or person that does not stop.
U.S. Marines said they had shouted at the driver to stop but to no avail.
They then fired warning shots, but the van ploughed on. The matter is still
under investigation.
(According to the BBC, and quoting the Washington Post, there are
conflicting reports that the warning shots were fired too late to warn off
the van. "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a
warning shot soon enough!" the paper quotes Captain Ronny Johnson as telling
his platoon leader.)
U.S. officials are worried this incident will weigh heavily on their
campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and convince them
that this is a war of liberation.
(Professor Des Ball, of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of
Canberra's Australian National University (ANU), believes that the coalition
may already be losing the publicity war: "Saddam and his regime will go but
the coalition's other war aims, I believe, are in tatters,")
Last week, embedded London Times reporter Mark Franchetti gave the following
chilling account of a battle that ensued for a strategic bridge over the
Euphrates river:
"Down the road, a little girl, no older than five and dressed in a pretty
orange and gold dress, lay dead in a ditch next to the body of a man who may
have been her father. Half his head was missing."
Franchetti reports that the U.S. Marines have become disillusioned after
nearly two weeks of fierce fighting with Iraqi forces. The fight for the
bridge at Nasiriyah will likely be forgotten as just another chapter in the
war. However, for Franchetti it brought him face to face with the horrid
facade of a war plan gone wrong:
"But it was also the turning point when the jovial band of brothers from
America lost all their assumptions about the war and became jittery
aggressors who talked of wanting to 'nuke' the place."
While one soldier confided to Franchetti that he was horrified at the
civilian toll, other U.S. Marines have taken a different approach to
liberating Iraq:
"The Iraqis are sick people and we are the chemotherapy," said Corporal Ryan
Dupre. "I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a
friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him."
Innocent Iraqis are being killed by the dozens every day in the current
phase of the war.
Agence France Presse reported that "20 people including 11 children, were
killed Saturday when a nighttime air raid hit a farm in the Al-Janabiin
suburb on the edge of Baghdad."
On April 2nd, Al Jazeera news network reported that Bartallah, a
predominantly Iraqi Christian town north of Mosul, suffered heavy civilian
casualties after a night of intense coalition bombing. The local chief
surgeon at the hospital reported that there were 120 dead and wounded
civilians brought into the hospital within the past week.
Al Jazeera showed footage of an Iraqi Christian with severe injuries to his
face and head. In the bed next to him lay his wife, who miscarried shortly
after being brought into the hospital. Local doctors said her face required
200 stitches and will likely be disfigured. The couple did not know at press
time that their three-year old daughter had died in the bombing.
By the time there is a cessation of hostilities, thousands of dead Iraqi
civilians will have been liberated. Supporters of the war are echoing
Madeleine Albright and stating that it is better for Iraqis to be killed and
liberated than to be butchered by Saddam. A popular myth making the rounds
on the internet is that Saddam butchers many more Iraqis than anyone else,
therefore this war is good for the Iraqis.
The dead in Bartallah might disagree. If they could speak, that is.
-- Andreas
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