A rchive Date
[ 17-10-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
|
[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/10/15/1263011-ap.html
US air strikes hit insurgents
Witnesses say 39 were civilians
October 17, 2005
BAGHDAD (AP) - United States helicopters and warplanes bombed two villages near the restive Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing around 70 militants, the U.S. military said Monday.
Officials said all the dead were insurgents, though witnesses said at least 39 were civilians. The violence on Sunday occurred a day after Iraq voted on - and apparently passed - a landmark constitution that many Sunnis opposed. On referendum day, a roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers in a vehicle in the Al-Bu Ubaid village on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi.
On Sunday, a group of around two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage of the U.S. vehicle and were hit by the air strikes by U.S. warplanes, both the military and witnesses said.
The military said in a statement that the crowd was setting another roadside bomb in the location of the blast when F-15 warplanes hit them with a precision-guided bomb, killing around 20 people, described by the statement as "terrorists."
But several witnesses and one local leader said the people were civilians who had gathered to gawk at or take pieces of the wreckage, as often occurs after an American vehicle is hit.
A tribal leader, Chiad Saad, said the air strike hit the crowd, killing 25 people civilians. Several witnesses corroborated his version, though they refused to give their names out of fear for their safety.
The other deaths occurred in the village of Al-Bu Faraj. The military said a group of gunmen opened fire on a Cobra attack helicopter that had spotted their position. The Cobra returned fire, killing around 10.
The remaining gunmen ran into a nearby house, where they were seen unloading weapons. An F/A-18 warplane struck the building with a bomb, killing 40 insurgents, the military said.
Witnesses said at least 14 of the dead were civilians. First, one man was wounded in an air strike and when he was brought into a nearby building, warplanes struck the building, said the witnesses, refusing to give their names for concern about their safety.
Ramadi, 112 kilometres west of Baghdad, is a stronghold for Sunni insurgents, and few people cast ballots there during Saturday's referendum - either out of fear of militants' reprisals or out of rejection of the new constitution.
Copyright © 2005, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|