WSW: US military opens fire on Iraqi civilians following

World Socialist Website

2 December 2003

By

David Walsh

The US media is hailing the American militarys success in repelling an
attack on two convoys in Samarra in central Iraq, but other news accounts
report indiscriminate firing by US forces following the initial attack, and
numerous civilian deaths.

In an assault that apparently represented a new level of coordination by
Iraqi resistance forces, groups of insurgents opened fire Sunday afternoon
with small-arms fire, mortars, homemade bombs and rocket-propelled grenades
(RPG) on two separate US military convoys that had just delivered currency
to two banks in Samarra, a city located 60 miles north of Baghdad. Attackers
shot at the US forces from the street and from rooftops.

American military officials noted that the nearly simultaneous attacks were
coordinated, involving between 60 and 100 guerrillas. US Brig. Gen. Mark
Kimmitt told a news conference, It was a large group of people. Are we
looking at this one closely? Yes. Is this something larger than weve seen
over the past couple of months? Yes. Are we concerned about it? Well look
at it and take appropriate measures in future operations.

Capt. Andy Deponai, whose tank was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade,
indicated surprise about the character of the attack. Up to now youve seen
a progressioninitially it was hit-and-run, single RPG shots on patrols,
then they started doing volley fire, multiple RPG ambushes, and then from
there this is the first well-coordinated one, he told the press. Here, it
seems they had the training to stand and fight.

According to Fourth Infantry Division spokesman Lieutenant Colonel William
MacDonald, the American forces fought back with tank fire when they were
attacked by the Iraqis. American forces destroyed several buildings
allegedly used by the resistance. US military vehicles were obliged to break
through a barricade thrown up by the guerrillas, which included pick-up
trucks and taxicabs.

The US military reported different figures Sunday and Monday on the number
of casualties and enemy fighters captured during the engagement. Officials
first reported that 46 Iraqis were killed, at least 18 wounded and 11
captured. On Monday, the military reported that 54 were dead, including 24
Iraqi guerrillas around one convoy and 22 around the other, 22 were wounded
and only one captured.

Another spokesman for the Fourth Infantry Division, Master Sgt. Robert
Cargie, claimed that after driving off the attackers, US troops discovered
that many of the dead and wounded Iraqis were wearing uniforms of the
Fedayeen, a militia loyal to former president Saddam Hussein. However, Gen.
Kimmitt suggested that the different figures on casualties were due to the
guerrillas having carried away their dead, tacitly acknowledging that there
were few, if any, bodies of fallen Iraqis left after the fighting.

The American version of the event was sharply contradicted by Iraqi
witnesses and foreign journalists who followed up on the story.

Samarras police chief, Colonel Ismail Mahmoud Mohammed, told the press that
resistance fighters who attacked the US convoys withdrew once the Americans
returned fire. There was an attack and an exchange of fire between the
Americans and the resistance lasting half an hour. The resistance withdrew,
then [US] bombardments started, using all manner of weapons in all
directions and without any discrimination.

Sheikh Mohammed Abd al-Karim, in charge of security on the local municipal
council, confirmed this version of events. There were shots, and then a
half-hour exchange with the assailants, who then fled. Then there was a
massive US bombardment in which buildings, including mosques and schools,
were hit by the Americans.

Iraqi witnesses said that the US militarys figure of 54 fighters killed was
a fabrication. Local residents reported that American fire killed eight or
nine Iraqis, all civilians. US Colonel Fredrik Rudesheim acknowledged that
the reported number of Iraqi dead was not based on a body count, but on
interviews with the American soldiers involved.

According to AlJazeera.net, Samarra Hospital accident and emergency
department anesthesiologist Bassam Ibrahim told the press: We received the
bodies of eight civilians, including a woman and a child. Hospital director
Abd Tawfiq said, More than 60 people wounded by gunfire and shrapnel from
US rounds are being treated at the hospital.

Among the wounded were a number of people praying in a nearby mosque,
including a 12-year-old boy. Reporters noted the impact of a rocket on one
of the outer walls of the al-Shafi mosque, some 60 yards from the hospital.

Agence France Presse (AFP) correspondents also reported seeing a civilian
bus entirely burned out 35 yards from the main entrance of the towns
hospital. The correspondents were shown two Iranian passports said to belong
to visitors killed on board the bus. The latter were apparently pilgrims en
route to visit the mausoleum of a major Shiite authority.

Reda Yosofyan, a member of the Iranian parliaments national security and
foreign policy commission, said the US was directly responsible for the
Iranians deaths. This event will evoke even more distrust between Iran and
the US, he told Aljazeera.net.

Workers at a nearby pharmaceutical plant were also fired on by the US
forces. At least two were killed and many wounded as they walked out of
the factory at the end of their shift, according to plant employees. Just as
staff at the State Enterprise for the Manufacture of Drugs and Medical
Equipment finished work, a US tank arrived and opened fire with machine
guns, according to Reuters.

An AFP correspondent saw blood spattered on the ground and bullet holes in a
sentry box near the factory gates. When asked what had happened, the plants
obviously shaken manager told the correspondent, Go see in the hospital. A
mortar attack on the US militarys nearby headquarters forced the reporter
to withdraw.

BBC correspondent Peter Greste in Samarra indicated that there were burned
out cars scattered throughout the city, and buildings riddled with bullet
holes. According to the BBC, He [Greste] says there is an unmistakable
sense of anger among local peoplewho say the US response to the attacks was
indiscriminate and unnecessary.

Sabah Jerges of the Associated Press spoke to some of the angry residents.
They explained that resistance fighters had attacked the American convoys,
but that when US forces began firing at random, many civilians got their
weapons and joined the fight. Townspeople were bitter about recent nighttime
raids by the US military.

Civilians shot back at the Americans, 30-year-old Ali Hassan told the AP.
They claim we are terrorists. So OK, were terrorists. What do they expect
when they drive among us?

One of the civilian installations fired on indiscriminately was a
kindergarten. Luckily, we evacuated the children five minutes before we
came under attack, said a guard at the facility. Why did they attack
randomly? Why did they shoot a kindergarten with tank shells?

A number of destroyed vehicles sat in front of the hospital, where,
according to local residents, US tanks shelled people who were dropping off
the injured.

Jerges of the AP reported, The scars of the battle were evident Monday.
About a dozen cars lay destroyed in the streets, many apparently crushed by
tanks, and bullet holes pocked many buildings. A rowdy crowd gathered at one
spot, chanting pro-Saddam slogans. One man fired warning shots in the air
when journalists arrived on the scene.

Also on Sunday afternoon in Samarra, four men in a black BMW opened fired at
soldiers of the 244th Engineer Battalion. According to the US military, the
soldiers fired back and wounded the men.

The US media was quick to report that Samarra lies in the so-called Sunni
triangle ... the heartland of Saddam Hussein loyalists. Edward Wong of the
New York Times observed that the town is just south of Tikrit, the
birthplace of Mr. Hussein and a stronghold of Baathist Party supporters and
Iraqis hostile to the occupation.

New York Newsdays Mohammed Bazzi, however, reports that just the opposite
has been the case, at least until recently. Bazzi writes, This city offers
a window into how the US-led occupation is losing ground in Iraq. Unlike
most Sunni Muslim cities in central and western Iraq, Samarra was a place
that US forces had a shot at winning over. The city of 200,000 was one of
the few Sunni-dominated areas that suffered under Saddam Husseins rule,
mainly because Samarra and its leading tribes were regional rivals to
Husseins hometown, Tikrit.

But the Americans have been unable to capitalize on Samarras hatred for
Hussein and his ruling Baath Party. Since arriving in mid-April, US forces
have carried out dozens of nighttime raids, detained hundreds of people and
imposed a nighttime curfew.... The Americans made serious mistakes from the
very beginning, said Shaker Mohammed, the citys US-appointed mayor and a
former Iraqi army general. When US soldiers search houses at night, they
tie up the men and they frighten the women and children. This breeds
resentment.

Bazzi spoke to a guard at the local soccer field that had been attacked by
US helicopters, who told him: No matter how much food they hand out or how
many schools they say theyre going to build, were never going to accept
the Americans here.... They are occupiers and we will drive them out.

Mahmoud, the towns US-appointed police chief, told the Financial Times that
American forces had gone too far in provoking the town, and said they
should stay out from now on. Were the French happy under the Nazis? he
asked. It is the same thing here.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/iraq-d02.shtml

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