Iraqis challenge US account of battle

[Say_What]

<clips>

Iraqi officials in Samarra yesterday challenged US military accounts of a bloody battle on Sunday, accusing American soldiers of spraying fire at random on the city streets, killing several civilians.

US army spokesmen claimed that up to 54 Iraqi guerrillas had been killed when they tried to ambush two armoured convoys bringing new banknotes to two Samarra banks, triggering the biggest pitched battle in Iraq since May 1, when President George Bush declared "major combat operations" over.

There were no reported American deaths, but five US soldiers were wounded, one seriously, and a civilian travelling with them was injured.

US officers involved in the battle described the ambushes as well coordinated by up to 80 guerrillas. They said some of the dead had worn the black uniforms of Saddam Hussein's most loyal paramilitary unit, the Fedayeen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1097902,00.html

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. Ahem, they wore the black uniforms of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen?

As if "guerrillas" would do such a thing?

[Say_What]

2. Ferocious gun battle that left no bodies

<clips>

...The attacks had left an ugly mood in the town, where locals were unanimous in condemning indiscriminate firing by the Americans.

"They are the most malicious people. They are not educated, they are barbarians. They said they would bring us democracy but they scare women and children. We will resist them to the depth of our soul," said Rashid Jasem, 38, a hardware shop owner, whose store was peppered with bullet holes.

Iraqi witnesses claimed that tanks fired a round at workers from a drug factory as they left work at 2.00pm. One woman was killed and 18 injured. A crater from the shell and a pool of blood remained nearby.

They said four cars were also hit in the parking area of the hospital and a nearby mosque was shelled, killing two. Dr Faleh Hassan Asamara, on duty at the hospital, said: "The Americans have done a lot of shooting but I don't think the number of dead they claimed were killed."

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/02/wirq02.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/02/ixnewstop.html>

[louis-t]

3. US reply to no bodies or wounded in hospital...

.. was that these guerillas "wouldn't bring their dead to a hospital".
That would imply that they had time to remove their wounded and dead and US troops don't have full control of the area, wouldn't it?

[xxqqqzme]

4. Iranian news saying

rooftop snipers fired on a convoy moving money??? US returned fire. Iraqi Hospital says 8 dead, 14 wounded. Showed one man killed and he was very elder man.

Lebonnese news saying workers leaving 'firm' @ end of shift were ambushed. Sound bites w/ wounded included men saying bombs were dropped in surrounding area w/ women & children killed.

what a f*cking disaster!

[Say_What]

5. Independent in the UK saying

eight people died as well.

<clips>

Iraqi officials say only eight people died, including a 71-year-old Iranian pilgrim called Fathollah Hejazi, whose charred passport they were showing to all-comers. The old man had, it seems, come to visit the ancient gold-domed Shi'ite mosque in this once-peaceful town on the banks of the Tigris.

Ali Abdullah Amin was interested in none of these things. What he cared about, as he lay beneath a grubby yellow blanket in his hospital bed, was the pain in his bandaged legs, both of which were seeping blood from bullet wounds, and the hole in the left side of his stomach. "My legs hurt, my legs hurt," the little boy moaned, as he cried in the arms of his 22-year-old cousin, Jamal Karim.

He may also have been wondering about the whereabouts of his father, Abdullah Amin al-Kurdi. Father and son were shot outside a small nearby mosque, a spot now marked by a large congealed pool of blood. Father didn't make it.

Iraqi witnesses were unanimous that Americans were to blame, pointing to a hole in a nearby cemetery wall which looked like the work of a shell fired from an Abrams tank. The US military stuck by its story of the battle, and by its estimation of the Iraqi death toll. Fifty-four Iraqis died, it said, all combatants. Major Gordon Tate, a spokesman at the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit, insisted the US military was "confident" about its assessment of the "battle damage".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=469253