US military says controlled blast wounds 30 in Iraq(Ramadi soccer blast)

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A controlled blast by U.S. soldiers near a soccer field in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Tuesday slightly wounded 30 people, including nine children, a spokesman for the U.S. military said.

Police and a local tribal leader in Ramadi earlier said a bomb attack near a soccer field killed 18 people, mostly children.

Major Jeff Pool told Reuters the U.S. military was unaware of the attack described by Iraqi officials, saying: "I can't imagine there would be another attack involving children without our people knowing." He said the wounded had cuts and bruises, adding there had been no deaths from the controlled blast.

more: http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO764390.htm


OMG....I hope this isn't be the same. :cry:

earlier thread here:

TV: Soccer field blast kills 18 children
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2748075

Conflicting reports over blast in Iraqi city
27 Feb 2007 18:11:42 GMT

By Dean Yates and Ibon Villelabeitia

BAGHDAD, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it was unaware of a bomb attack in the city of Ramadi on Tuesday in which Iraqi officials and a tribal leader said 18 people, mostly children, had been killed.

Iraqiya state TV said all those killed near a soccer field were children while local tribal leader Hamid Farhan al-Hays told the station 12 were children and six were women. Police said 19 people, mostly children, were killed or wounded.

A U.S. military spokesman, Major Jeff Pool, said a controlled blast by U.S. soldiers near a soccer field in Ramadi slightly wounded 30 people, including nine children. He said the wounded had cuts and bruises.

more:
http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/YAT752834.htm

[sabra]

1. rec - for the truth...

[rodeodance]

2. "A controlled blast by U.S. soldiers...."//// umm.. the article does not

say the nature of con. blast.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

3. lying liars at work.

only that much is clear.

[maddezmom]

4. CNN has the conflicting info now on it's banner

Reuters reports a controlled blast by U.S. soldiers near a soccer field in Ramadi, Iraq, slightly wounded 30 people, including nine children, according to a spokesman for the U.S. military. Earlier reports said 18 children were killed.

[maddezmom]

6. CNN has removed it's banner

:shrug: and don't see an update

[w8liftinglady]

5. Goddammit.Why do a controlled blast near a soccer field?

[jobycom]

7. I sure as hell hope this isn't the beginning of what it looks like

Looks to me like the US accidentally hit a soccer field, killed a bunch of kids, and are now trying to play ignorant about the deaths while creating a cover story that the explosion was "controlled." If so, this should go through the "We were blowing up an IED to save lives when it went off" to "we regretfully admit that there were some casualties and we will now open a long investigation and get back to you in a decade or two on the findings..."

I hope the new story of no deaths turns out to be true. I really, really do.

[maddezmom]

9. well Faux just reported the 18 deaths

as has CNNI...so I have feeling there were deaths.

[sabra]

8. more from second report: US Mil is unaware of attack but blames al Qeada

<snip>

I can't imagine there would be another attack involving children without our people knowing," said Pool.

Hays blamed the blast on Sunni Arab-led al Qaeda, which is involved in an escalating power struggle with Sunni elders for control of Anbar province, heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar.

"The groups which did this barbaric crime are al Qaeda," said Hays.

[maddezmom]

12. something just isn't adding up with this story

BBC is also reporting

Bomb 'kills Iraq football youths'

Iraqi officials say a car bomb has killed at least 18 people, most of them children, near a football pitch in the western city of Ramadi.
Many of the victims were aged 10 to 15 and had gathered to play football when the bomb went off, police said.

But a US official later told Reuters news agency US forces had conducted a controlled blast near a Ramadi pitch, injuring a number of people.

It is not clear if this was connected with the earlier reports of the bomb.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province - the centre of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.

more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6401839.stm

[Dhalgren]

25. Ok, so please explain to me how the military can be "unaware of any other

blasts, but still say "it was al-Quaeda"? This sounds like a Marx Brothers skit. "Nothing was stolen and I'm sure I know who did it."

[sabra]

26. their answer - if it did happen it's al-Qeada - "trust us"

[Marie26]

10. Both blasts near a soccer field

That's a pretty big coincidence.

[sutz12]

11. "I can't imagine"

Code word for OOPS!

[w8liftinglady]

13. I don't care how they spin it...the perception will be-We did it.

[Contrary1]

14. WTF is going on?

"Major Jeff Pool said the U.S. military was unaware of the attack described by Iraqi officials."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17362738/

[w8liftinglady]

15. Reuters now reporting "Conflicting reports"

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/YAT752834.htm

[maddezmom]

24. from the link: Pool said the controlled blast in Ramadi was "stronger than we had expected".

this isn't good :(

[rodeodance]

16. CNN: Accounts differ on Iraq soccer field blast ( 4 US troops killed 24 hr)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/27/iraq.main/index.html

Accounts differ on Iraq soccer field blast
POSTED: 1:45 p.m. EST, February 27, 2007
Story Highlights
• NEW: Officials offer conflicting accounts of soccer field explosion
• One report said 18 boys were killed in the blast near Ramadi
• Four U.S. soldiers killed in past 24 hours, military reports
• Police: U.S.-Iraqi security plan is forcing insurgents to change tactics


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An explosion at a makeshift soccer field near Ramadi, injured at least 25 people Tuesday, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

There were conflicting accounts about the number and seriousness of the injuries and whether there were fatalities at the field west of Baghdad.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said that a car bomb at the field had killed 18 boys, ages 10 to 15.

But a U.S. military spokesman told Reuters that a controlled blast near a soccer field in Ramadi slightly wounded 30 people, including nine children.

Maj. Jeff Pool told Reuters the U.S. military was unaware of the attack described by Iraqi officials, saying: "I can't imagine there would be another attack involving children without our people knowing."

[rodeodance]

17. 3,160,

.........Bombings in Iraq have killed four U.S. soldiers during the past 24 hours, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. Three of the soldiers were killed and another was wounded Tuesday by a roadside bomb that exploded "while conducting a route clearance mission southwest of the Iraqi capital," the military said. A fourth solider was killed and two others wounded in an attack on a Humvee on Monday, the military said. The soldiers were serving with a unit of the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) near Diwaniya in southern Iraq, the military said. The number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq war stands at 3,160, including seven Defense Department civilians.

[acmavm]

18. IF, GOD FORBID, we did kill 18 children there will be many many

more to join these four unfortunates.

[w8liftinglady]

23. that's my fear

[brer cat]

27. I'm so sorry that you have a child going into this nightmare!

Thoughts and prayers for you and your family.:grouphug:

[w8liftinglady]

28. Thanks-I need it

[maddezmom]

29. my thoughts are also with you and yours

:hug: I want my friends and family home now, too.

[BOSSHOG]

19. So there ya have it

30 wounded, not 15 dead. Talk about good news. Spread the word. Repeal the 22nd amendment.

[Supersedeas]

30. I'm sure that Blitzer will get to the bottom of it...the way he did the munitions explosion

[w8liftinglady]

20. now talking to Marine commander-what went wrong?

[w8liftinglady]

21. The lieutenant sounds very disturbed.

[w8liftinglady]

22. no mention of 18 dead children-30 injured

[maddezmom]

31. U.S. military says it has no knowledge of deaths of boys playing soccer

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- U.S. military officials said they detonated captured explosives Tuesday in the Iraqi city of Ramadi that wounded dozens of people, but added they have no knowledge of a car bomb blast that reports say killed 18 children at a soccer field on the outskirts of the city.

The deaths were reported by Iraq's Interior Ministry and state Iraqi TV. The ministry said the soccer-field bomb went off in a parked car, killing 18 boys ages 10 to 15 and wounding 25 playing at a makeshift playing field.

The only blast the U.S. military was aware of in Ramadi, said Lt. Col. Joslyn Aberle, came when troops discovered a weapons cache in Ramadi that was secured and detonated. The cache contained unknown explosives, she said, and possibly because of that, the blast was larger than expected.

She said it wounded 30 civilians and an Iraqi soldier, but there were no deaths.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/27/tuesday/index.html

[Massachusetts]

32. FUBAR

Get OUR Troops out ASAP. We are not winning the minds and hearts of the Iraqi populace.