Posted on 06/19/2004 5:12:36 AM PDT by Max Combined
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. military plane fired missiles Saturday into a residential neighborhood in Fallujah, killing at least 20 and leveling houses in the restive Sunni Muslim city, police and residents said. The U.S. military declined comment.
Residents said at least 20 bodies were taken for burial soon afterward in the city's "martyrs' cemetery," in accordance with Islamic custom to bury dead quickly. At least three women and five children were among the dead.
U.S. Marines declined comment and referred queries to the U.S. command, which said it had no comment.
"At 9:30 a.m., a U.S. plane shot two missiles on this residential area," said the Fallujah police chief, Sabbar al-Janabi, as he surveyed the wreckage. "Scores were killed and injured. This picture speaks for itself."
Rescue workers combed the scene looking for other victims. At least two houses were destroyed and six others were damaged in the poor residential area.
Water spouted from a hole in front of one of the destroyed houses, apparently from where one of the missiles struck.
Outraged residents accused the Americans of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes — one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers.
"The number of casualties is so high because after the first missile we jumped to rescue the victims," said Wissam Ali Hamad. "The second missile killed those trying to carry out the rescue."
U.S. Marines pulled back from Fallujah in late April after three weeks of fighting touched off when four American security contractors were killed in an ambush and their bodies mutilated.
Ten Marines and hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died before the siege was lifted and security was handed over to an Iraqi volunteer force, the Fallujah Brigade.
U.S. officials have said Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may be hiding in the city. Al-Zarqawi has been blamed for the string of car bombs across Iraq (news - web sites), including the Thursday that killed 35 people and wounded 145 at an Iraqi military recruiting center in Baghdad.
Let's flatten that hellhole once and for all, otherwise when the Iraqis take over, the whackos will pour forth from that town in an attempt to take over the govt. Then we're back to square one. Freeing Saddam would really be one in the eye of Uncle Sam, so they'd do that in a NY minute; and we'd be left asking ourselves why we bothered to free that country in the first place.
All of the victims, including the rescuers, were children, pregnant women, cripples, and elderly retarded conjoined twins.
It's pretty early in the morning, but excuse me while I go out and dance on the hood of my car and shoot my AK-47 in the air. From now on, I'm gonna start celebrating every time one of those rag-head m-f'er's gets blown to sh*t.
Silence is very bad policy. It is a PR war just as much as a shooting war. We should have public releases instantly ready to tell why - harboring fighters, killing hostages, firing at our troops. America - GET A VOICE. Do it fast.
I have a feeling that the ones who were supposed to get the message go it! Word of mouth is very powerful...
These targeted hits have shown some success for Israel. It is sad that innocents may have been killed. The lesson should be that if you tolerate cockroaches among you, don't be surprised by the application of RAID. Had these "innocents" stepped up and eliminated the terrorists among them, missiles would not have been necessary. Stand up Fallujah or live forever under the boot.
Well, since the Navy was forced to cede Vieques, they have to "practice" somewhere..
"I'm gonna start celebrating every time one of those rag-head m-f'er's gets blown to sh*t."
Fight fire with fire. This is war. Let'f fight to win.
"in the restive Sunni Muslim city"
Sounds like the vacation hotspot of the mideast. Better book my reservations before it's too late.
You forgot the lesbian-midget-albino-eskimos too.
They were equally victimized.
AND WHAT ABOUT THE PUPPIES?!
WHAT
ABOUT
THE
PUPPIES!??!?!?!
:-)
Y' know, I have a feeling that our intelligence was very good this time.
"AND WHAT ABOUT THE PUPPIES?! WHAT ABOUT THE PUPPIES!??!?!?!"
And the cute little seals...?
LOL. Time to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids, dance on roof, and uulate. Praise be to JDAM.
It's pretty early in the morning, but excuse me while I go out and dance on the hood of my car and shoot my AK-47 in the air. From now on, I'm gonna start celebrating every time one of those rag-head m-f'er's gets blown to sh*t.
LOL. Mind if I join you in this dance of delight?
mind if I borrow this for a tag?
and baby kitties
That was "restive", not "festive".
There was some very specific time critical intel on this target. I can't recall a recent strike like this in Fallujah. The "no comment" response from the U.S. command makes me think this may have been directed against Zarqawi. I would want to see Zarqawi captured for the intel value, but maybe our guys have decided the Israeli tactic against Hamas is the better way to go.
...and it was a wedding party.
"Outraged residents accused the Americans of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes — one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers."
This is not the kind of thing we do, but if we had, from whom would we have learned this?
"may have been directed against Zarqawi."
My thoughts exactly. I hope they got them.
Message to Iraqi police and military in Fallujah: Either you do it or we'll clean them out for you.
This is such a biased report.
Seems they were going after Zarqawi. No mention whether they got him. I hope so.
>>The lesson should be that if you tolerate cockroaches among you, don't be surprised by the application of RAID.
Jerry Pournelle used to use a little ditty whenever the Israelis used this technique, and people whined about the "civilian" casualties:
Do not throw s#!+ at an armed man.
Do not stand next to a man, who throws s#!+ at an armed man.
Do not allow a man, who throws s#!+ at an armed man, to live in your house.
Accurate, succinct, and appeals to my weird sense of humor.
If the rescuers were terrorists,
too, targeting them was wrong how?
bump with hopes for future "good news".
"If the rescuers were terrorists,
too, targeting them was wrong how?"
It wouldn't be wrong at all. If the military had been allowed to handle the "situation" in Fallujah, it would have been over weeks ago. Maybe holding back was the right policy to keep some of these folks from going over to the dark side, but I really don't know.
Perhaps Zarqawi is now a columnist for the NYT or AP?
I remain convinced we need to make a Carthegenian example of Fallujah: bring in a couple of full divisions and place a really tight cordon sanitaire around the place, give the women and children (including males under 15) 48 hours to get out, flatten the place with bombs and artillery, kill any men found in the rubble alive, cover the entire place with pig's blood, and then salt the earth. And get lots of TV footage of it for the media. Add footage of the aircrews preparing for nuclear missions to Mecca and Medina. Let the liberals whine, the arab world will get the very clear message we mean business.
Maybe he was giving a telephone interview with the BBC. :-)
Zarqawi may be the target of the airstrike...
You forgot to mention they were there for a wedding party.
Now, lets target the funeral and repeat.
Just think how pissed they're going to be when we have to eventually nuke them.
That is what they get for being rescuers. They should mind their own business. They should have known we were not through blowing up the rat-hole.
Another interesting tid bit from another article on this story:
"We saw a spy plane hovering at 9 a.m.," said Ahmed Salih, a taxi driver. "At 9:30, it struck two houses and at 9:35 it fired another missile."
A hovering spy plane???
Will the admin mod change the title if the report comes out that we got him? I suggest
If we were to do that Fallujah would cease to exist.
Zarqawi, Zarqawi are you under there?
I certainly hope so. bbbwwwhhaaahhaa!
why do they want to kill innocent people?
Can you say Predator.
There is very little to go on in that one liner, but that is exactly what went through my mind.
The FreeRepublic French will be here in a few moments to declay you an "Arm Chair General."
They'd rather our grandchildren be forced to decide which culture will survive.
Wouldn't it also be appropriate to yell America akbar while doing the above celebration?
only 2 missiles.
LOL! My first thought, they were aiming at AZ.
darn fat fingers. declay = declare
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