Posted on 05/23/2004 3:37:58 PM PDT by AntiGuv
RAMADI, Iraq - A videotape obtained Sunday by Associated Press Television News captures a wedding party that survivors say was later attacked by U.S. planes early Wednesday, killing up to 45 people. The dead included the cameraman, Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, hired to record the festivities, which ended Tuesday night before the planes struck.
The U.S. military says it is investigating the attack, which took place in the village of Mogr el-Deeb about five miles from the Syrian border, but that all evidence so far indicates the target was a safehouse for foreign fighters.
"There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Saturday. "There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations, too."
But video that APTN shot a day after the attack shows fragments of musical instruments, pots and pans and brightly colored beddings used for celebrations, scattered around the bombed out tent.
The wedding videotape shows a dozen white pickup trucks speeding through the desert escorting the bridal car — decorated with colorful ribbons. The bride wears a Western-style white bridal dress and veil. The camera captures her stepping out of the car but does not show a close-up.
An AP reporter and photographer, who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing, were able to identify many of them on the wedding party video — which runs for several hours.
APTN also traveled to Mogr el-Deeb, 250 miles west of Ramadi, the day after the attack to film what the survivors said was the wedding site. A devastated building and remnants of the tent, pots and pans could be seen, along with bits of what appeared to be the remnants of ordnance, one of which bore the marking "ATU-35," similar to those on U.S. bombs.
A water tanker truck can be seen in both the video shot by APTN and the wedding tape obtained from a cousin of the groom.
The singing and dancing seems to go on forever at the all-male tent set up in the garden of the host, Rikad Nayef, for the wedding of his son, Azhad, and the bride Rutbah Sabah. The men later move to the porch when darkness falls, apparently taking advantage of the cool night weather. Children, mainly boys, sit on their fathers' laps; men smoke an Arab water pipe, finger worry beads and chat with one another. It looks like a typical, gender-segregated tribal desert wedding.
As expected, women are out of sight - but according to survivors, they danced to the music of Hussein al-Ali, a popular Baghdad wedding singer hired for the festivities. Al-Ali was buried in Baghdad on Thursday.
Prominently displayed on the videotape was a stocky man with close-cropped hair playing an electric organ. Another tape, filmed a day later in Ramadi and obtained by APTN, showed the musician lying dead in a burial shroud — his face clearly visible and wearing the same tan shirt as he wore when he performed.
As the musicians played, young men milled about, most dressed in traditional white robes. Young men swayed in tribal dances to the monotonous tones of traditional Arabic music. Two children — a boy and a girl — held hands, dancing and smiling. Women are rarely filmed at such occasions, and they appear only in distant glimpses.
Kimmitt said U.S. troops who swept through the area found rifles, machine guns, foreign passports, bedding, syringes and other items that suggested the site was used by foreigners infiltrating from Syria.
The videotape showed no weapons, although they are common among rural Iraqis.
Kimmitt has denied finding evidence that any children died in the raid although a "handful of women" — perhaps four to six — were "caught up in the engagement."
"They may have died from some of the fire that came from the aircraft," he told reporters Friday.
However, an AP reporter obtained names of at least 10 children who relatives said had died. Bodies of five of them were filmed by APTN when the survivors took them to Ramadi for burial Wednesday. Iraqi officials said at least 13 children were killed.
Four days after the attack, the memories of the survivors remain painful — as are their injuries.
Haleema Shihab, 32, one of the three wives of Rikad Nayef, said that as the first bombs fell, she grabbed her seven-month old son, Yousef, and clutching the hands of her five-year-old son, Hamza, started running. Her 15-year-old son, Ali, sprinted alongside her. They managed to run for several yards when she fell — her leg fractured.
"Hamza was yelling, 'mommy,'" Shihab, recalled. "Ali said he was hurt and that he was bleeding. That's the last time I heard him." Then another shell fell and injured Shihab's left arm.
"Hamza fell from my hand and was gone. Only Yousef stayed in my arms. Ali had been hit and was killed. I couldn't go back," she said from her hospital bed in Ramadi. Her arm was in a cast.
She and her stepdaughter, Iqbal — who had caught up with her — hid in a bomb crater. "We were bleeding from 3 a.m. until sunrise," Shihab said.
Soon American soldiers came. One of them kicked her to see if she was alive, she said.
"I pretended I was dead so he wouldn't kill me," said Shihab. She said the soldier was laughing. When Yousef cried, the soldier said: "No, stop," said Shihab.
Fourteen-year-old Moza, Shihab's stepdaughter, lies on another bed of the hospital room. She was hurt in the leg and cries. Her relatives haven't told her yet that her mother, Sumaya, is dead.
"I fear she's dead," Moza said of her mother. "I'm worried about her."
Moza was sleeping on one side of the porch next to her sisters Siham, Subha and Zohra while her mother slept on the other end. There were many others on the porch, her cousins, stepmothers and other female relatives.
When the first shell fell, Moza and her sisters, Subha, Fatima and Siham ran off together. Moza was holding Subha's hand.
"I don't know where Fatima and my mom were. Siham got hit. She died. I saw Zohra's head gone. I lost consciousness," said Moza, covering her mouth with the end of her headscarf.
Her sister Iqbal, lay in pain on the bed next to her. Her other sister, Subha, was on the upper floor of the hospital, in the same room with two-year-Khoolood. Her small body was bandaged and a tube inserted in her side drained her liver.
Her ankle was bandaged. A red ribbon was tied to her curly hair. Only she and her older brother, Faisal, survived from their immediate family. Her parents and four sisters and brothers were all killed.
In all, 27 members of Rikad Nayef's extended family died — most of them children and women, the family said.
This I would like to see. The Bride probably has a mustache.
Okay, so which is it, did the "festivities" end, or was there a wedding going on?
with so much dust and sand thrown up on this topic, I bein to despair of ever grasping the facts.
There is no line anymore. AP, AFP and Reuters are totally pathetic.
I must admit, that here are times when I believe that limits should be placed on the press. They have crossed the line of jouralism and are now the enemy.
It has become a joke that is not funny.
I recall after an Israeli raid into one of the Palestinian areas, they insisted children had been killed. They even put it on TV.
As the cameras were rolling one of the "dead children" sat up on the stretcher they were carrying him on. Another stretcher was tipped and the child fell on the ground and got back up on his own.
This is just so much Barbra Streisand.
OK, being Sunday I'm out of it...wait for what?
The name of the reporterette is Sheherezade. I did not make any comments implying anything about her name. I did note she is a piece of work being as she has been leading the "wedding party" parade.
Yes, one could make some guesses as to why she is inclined to take a certain side, but that's not my game. I just look to her in particular and see what she's doing and I want her to knock it off. Actually, I wish she could face charges at this point, so far over the line is she.
Good catch.
Did you read any of my posts directing you to a credible and reliable account of what happened?
Looks like they accidently refuted their own contention
You need to get a clue, my friend. The anti-war side always has pictures and bodies and eyewitness reports, while the Bush Administration and its flunkies have only one tissue-thin layer of lies after another.
Conservatives need to jump this sinking ship of Moderate Republican incompetence. Dennis Hastert would make an excellent President, and he's only two impeachment trials away from becoming one!
Looks like you're the liar.
AP the political arm of Al Jazeera.
Former Prisoner Prefers Saddam's Torture to US Abuse
U.S. Troops Accused of Killing Iraqis
and
Iraqis say US too forceful in Lynch rescue
as just a few Googled examples.
Liberal morons.
The only effective method is to counter it with our own propaganda and for the Administration to put the word out that AP and its cronies are working towards our defeat.
It's time for the GOP to stop complaining and start doing something about the problem.
I get 85 bajillion channels with my satellite, but that's not one of them. Never heard of it before today.
The anti-war side doesn't have crap. They haven't shown us a damn thing that actually shows a US attack on anything, and they're "eyewitness reports" are over-the top drama plays.
i dont know if this has been mentioned in another thread on the topic but apparently these guys may be smugglers but more of the animal variety than the weapon variety.
theres a bunch of families that make money smuggling livestock into syria.
this might be why they appeared to be suspicious.
of course they could be weapons smugglers, im going to wait for the investigation.
If the video showed the planes attacking, I'd believe it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.