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.
I, for one, have never said we could not make a mistake.
I have pointed out that when we do we admit it.
This time Kimmitt has been adamant that there was not a wedding party, period. There is zero evidence to back up the wedding propaganda on this one. It all supports our military operation.
"The first time we run a car off the road and pump bullets into a pregnant Muslim women and her four daughters then I will become anti-war.
But not until then."
Well said, jocon!
It seems to me that the Associated Press is working for the enemy.
I would go into detail about the situation. I could not have said it any better than you; very well put.
Yes. propaganda.
I think I'm reading and listening to wwwway too much news. But, If I stop now, I won't know if this is true or false. I'm getting more jaded, minute by minute...
I don't follow what you mean about reading and listening to "too much news". I watch and read plenty and that's how I can sort fact from fiction. I'm making an informed evaluation here and I am quite confident I am correct.
They probably hired a DJ for karioke.
"A lot here" have been following this story for five solid days and aren't assuming a damn thing.
I'd swear our friend Scheherezade was in Afghanistan reporting for Reuters/AP when they "broke" the story of the "bombed wedding party" from about two years ago, but I could be wrong.
I meant that for the Blame America First crowd...not the people who trust the evidence we know fom Kimmitt.
I don't know why I bother with the "impeach Bush and Cheney" or "never trust anything we do" crowd!...somebody has to do it?
hehe
Go, Meg, Go!
...Waiting for answers that will un-jade me...
....;)
Heard this one?
Yeah. I believe that.
Probably a film from a wedding, but who knows when the film was taken. It could well have been a week before, a month before, who knows. Where did all the food go? Why do you need an ID making machine at a wedding? Why do you need 300 sets of bedding and 100 sets of Iraqi clothing all sealed up nice in packages? Why do you need all those false IDs at a wedding?
"Faramarzi" is an Iranian (Persian) name, which may explain much.
It's a common tactic, used before, and confirmed by Muslims sympathetic to the West, to have a "wedding couple complete with marriage license" to trot out in the event the "ceremony" gets raided. In this case, bombed.
Mistakes get made. It's war. The History Channel - Military Blunders in History reflects that. But we generally admit it when we've made a mistake.
There isn't one shred of evidence I've seen to date that makes me think this was a "real" wedding.
There was a soldier on Rush's show last week who said it was common for US forces to be fired upon from wedding parties and from funerals. He said they had to be on special alert around these 'celebrations'.
I just googled "Afghanistan wedding bombed" and found that we were accused of bombing 3 wedding parties in Afghanistan!...Gee, the military sure does have something against marriage...;)...or this is a common ruse by the bad guys.
A Muslim guy who is sympathetic to the west was on FNC last week; I've forgotten which day.
He said wedding ceremonies are used as cover for terrorist activities in the Middle East. He explained in great detail how some couple was found, forced to participate generally, and a marriage license on had should the gathering of terrorists get raided.
Only the committed lefties believe how many wedding parties we've "accidentally bombed". LOL
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