[Vision2020] How is the World Safer? (Iraq)

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

Tom et. al.

What the story below does not report is that, according to NPR heard this 
morning, Iraqi children were around the Bradley vehicle that was burning, and 
were killed when the US helicopters fired on the site.

Winning hearts and minds!

Ted Moffett 



Subj:   [Vision2020] How is the World Safer? (Iraq)     
Date:   9/13/2004 6:52:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time  
From:   thansen at moscow.com  
To: vision2020 at moscow.com   
Sent from the Internet (Details)    
    


Scores die as violence spreads 

U.S. helicopters fire on crowd in Baghdad

An Iraqi policeman inspects damage done to the car of Lt. Col. Alaa al-Din 
Arif, who was killed after a car bomb exploded nearby, in Baghdad on Sunday. A 
car bomb detonated early Sunday in a western Baghdad neighborhood, killing two 
police officers on patrol, the Interior Ministry said. (Associated Press )

Evan Osnos

Chicago Tribune

September 13, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Rebels on Sunday launched their most intense assault on 
central Baghdad in months, raining mortars on the U.S.-controlled Green Zone and 
exploding a car bomb to destroy an American armored vehicle. The day of violence 
left at least 59 Iraqis dead and injured scores more across the country.

In one incident, U.S. helicopters fired into a crowd gathered around the 
disabled Bradley fighting vehicle.

The airstrike, which the military said is under investigation, was captured 
on film when a correspondent for an Arabic-language television network was 
mortally wounded by shrapnel from the strike in the midst of taping a report. 
Reporter Mazen al-Tumeizi, 25, was talking into the camera, with flames and 
bystanders in the background, when a sharp blast buckled him forward. The camera 
swung away with blood on the lens, as al-Tumeizi yelled, "I am dying. I am 
dying."

The images and the death toll provided a bleak illustration of the 
unremitting bloodshed left by Iraq's 17-month-old insurgency, proving that, more than 
two months after an interim Iraqi government took power with a pledge to bring 
security, rebels still strike the heart of the capital at will. By day's end, 
25 Iraqis had died in Baghdad, while other clashes left 10 dead in the southern 
city of Hillah and 14 in the western city of Ramadi, according to the Iraqi 
Health Ministry.

No U.S. deaths were reported Sunday, but six soldiers were wounded in the car 
bomb attack that destroyed the Bradley fighting vehicle, military officials 
said.

Three Polish soldiers were killed and at least three more were injured in 
fighting while returning from a demining mission near Hillah, Polish forces said. 
The deaths raised to 13 the number of Polish soldiers killed in Iraq.

Even as they fought in much of the country, U.S.-led troops said they had 
peacefully retaken the embattled city of Tal Afar early Sunday, three days after 
fierce clashes with insurgents closed off the city and sent thousands of 
residents fleeing.

Roughly 2,000 U.S. soldiers in high-tech Stryker armored vehicles headed into 
the city at 3:15 a.m. to root out militias and secure the city, spokesman Lt. 
Col. Paul Hastings said. U.S. troops stationed just outside Tal Afar had been 
involved in escalating battles and expected fierce resistance. But the troops 
secured the city without a struggle, Hastings said.

U.S. commanders said they did not immediately know the whereabouts of an 
estimated 200 guerrillas who had been fighting American troops with small-arms 
fire, rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs and mortars. During the past two 
weeks, fighting in Tal Afar, a remote northwest city near the Syrian border, 
killed an estimated 67 insurgents, officials said.

Outside Baghdad on Sunday, a suicide bomber attempted to ram his car into the 
gate of Abu Ghraib prison, but U.S. guards fired back and caused the car to 
explode before it breached the gate, the military said.

The most serious violence of the day was on Baghdad's Haifa Street, a main 
thoroughfare that is home largely to Palestinian and Syrian expatriates and has 
been a frequent site of clashes with U.S. troops. The slain journalist, Mazen 
al-Tumeizi, was one of those Palestinian immigrants who had settled in Baghdad 
with his family seven years ago.

A 2002 graduate of Baghdad University, al-Tumeizi had found work last summer 
as a producer for Al-Arabiya television.

After the airstrike, al-Tumeizi was rushed to a hospital with injuries to his 
back, leg and arm and died 90 minutes later, said Wehad Yacoub, Baghdad 
bureau manager for Al-Arabiya.

On Sunday, al-Tumeizi was asleep at 4 a.m. when the rebels' mortar onslaught 
began, said his roommate, Rajih Khalil al-Talahma, who was injured in the U.S. 
airstrike.

U.S. troops moved into the area, hiding behind trees and walls as they fought 
with guerrillas in the street and among apartment complexes, al-Talahma said. 
At 6:50 a.m., a U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle on its way to help a group of 
soldiers was hit by a car bomb, injuring two soldiers, the military said, and 
four others were wounded by grenades and gunfire during the evacuation.

With the soldiers gone, a crowd swarmed the burning vehicle and celebrated, 
some hoisting a flag with "Unity and Holy War," the name of the militant group 
loyal to Jordanian rebel leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has claimed 
responsibility for months of bombings, kidnappings and other attacks in Iraq.

Al-Tumeizi had raced to the scene from his apartment with a Reuters cameraman 
and the pair teamed up to tape a report. He was set to leave when he realized 
he had forgotten to film a sign-off that included his name and station 
identification.

"He said, 'Let's go back,' " al-Tumeizi's roommate, his head bandaged and his 
leg broken, recalled at al Karch Hospital. "The cameraman didn't even set up 
a tripod because it was (to be) so short. Then we heard the helicopters."

 

 





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