US roadblock shootings in Iraq kill at least 5 in minibus filled with Baghdad bank workers

Source: AP

BAGHDAD (AP) - American troops fired on vehicles trying to drive through roadblocks in Baghdad and north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least five people, including a child and two bank employees on their way to work, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The shooting in Baghdad took place in a northern neighborhood known to
be a Shiite militia stronghold as the driver was collecting employees of the Rasheed bank, police said. U.S. troops fired when the bus reached the U.S. roadblock Tuesday morning and tried to drive through, killing as many as four passengers _ including three women, police and hospital officials said.
In a statement, the American military said the driver was traveling on a street restricted to cars only, and failed to heed a warning shot.

. . .

During a U.S. operation Monday against al-Qaida in Beiji, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, American troops shot at a vehicle speeding toward a roadblock after firing warning shots, the U.S. military said in a separate statement. Two men in the vehicle were killed immediately, and a child traveling with them died later of his wounds.

. . .

"We regret that civilians are hurt or killed while Coalition forces work diligently to rid this country of the terrorist networks that threaten the security of Iraq and our forces," Cmdr. Ed Buclatin, a U.S. spokesman, said in the statement.

Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/us-roadblock-shootings-in-iraq-kill-r318927.htm

Iraq Has Only Militants, No Civilians
"Tactical Perception Management" in Iraq

By Dahr Jamail


"Sometimes I think it should be a rule of war that you have to see somebody up close and get to know him before you can shoot him." -- Colonel Potter, M*A*S*H

Name them. Maim them. Kill them.

From the beginning of the American occupation in Iraq, air strikes and attacks by the U.S. military have only killed "militants," "criminals," "suspected insurgents," "IED emplacers," "anti-American fighters," "terrorists," "military age males," "armed men," "extremists," or "al-Qaeda."

The pattern for reporting on such attacks has remained the same from the early years of the occupation to today. Take a helicopter attack on October 23rd of this year near the village of Djila, north of Samarra. The U.S. military claimed it had killed 11 among "a group of men planting a roadside bomb." Only later did a military spokesperson acknowledge that at least six of the dead were civilians. Local residents claimed that those killed were farmers, that there were children among them, and that the number of dead was greater than 11.

Here is part of the statement released by U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq, Major Peggy Kageleiry:

"A suspected insurgent and improvised explosive device cell member was identified among the killed in an engagement between Coalition Forces and suspected IED emplacers just north of Samarra.... During the engagement, insurgents used a nearby house as a safe haven to re-engage coalition aircraft. A known member of an IED cell was among the 11 killed during the multiple engagements. We send condolences to the families of those victims and we regret any loss of life."

As usual, the version offered by locals was vastly different. Abdul al-Rahman Iyadeh, a relative of some of the victims, revealed that the "group of men" attacked were actually three farmers who had left their homes at 4:30 A.M. to irrigate their fields. Two were killed in the initial helicopter attack and the survivor ran back to his home where other residents gathered. The second air strike, he claimed, destroyed the house killing 14 people. Another witness told reporters that four separate houses were hit by the helicopter. A local Iraqi policeman, Captain Abdullah al-Isawi, put the death toll at 16 -- seven men, six women, and three children, with another 14 wounded.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174866/tomdispatch_dahr_jamail_how_to_control_the_story_pentagon_style

More and more the "liberal" media is saying that the surge is working.


Is it true and is this an example.

My impression is that most of the people have moved out of Iraq1's so called war zone and those who are left get killed like this-the green zone remains as the safe zone.

Are there schools ther still? What is happening?

Women killed in US firing as Iraq mulls role of American forces by Salam Faraj
Tue Nov 27, 5:21 AM ET



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Seven Iraqis, among them three women and a child, were on Tuesday reported killed by the US military, a day after Washington and Baghdad agreed to keep American forces in Iraq beyond 2008.

The deaths of more civilians come as Iraqis begin reassessing the controversial role of the US military in their war-ravaged country.

Iraqi security officials said three women and a man were killed when the minibus in which they were travelling came under American military fire in Baghdad's northeastern Al-Shaab neighbourhood.

The vehicle was carrying employees of Al-Rasheed bank and the gunfire wounded another two people -- a woman and a man, they said.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071127/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_071127102117

would a car load of working people knowing what would happen if they charged a roadblock do such a thing. These apparantly were educated working people going to or from work, I suppose.

Something smells here.

the military puts out a statement that the car charged them. SOP.

Just as every single person/baby killed when our bombs are dropped are put down in the military books as militants.

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