Posted on 03/28/2006 6:18:51 PM PST by blam
US admits attack target contained a mosque
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 29/03/2006)
Iraqi and American special forces who attacked an insurgent headquarters in Baghdad were not aware that their target contained a mosque until after the battle, America's most senior soldier said yesterday.
General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was responding to 48 hours of unremitting criticism over the controversial raid, which Iraqi radicals claim resulted in the deaths of 21 unarmed worshippers and an imam.
A video grab shows bodies on the floor of the mosque
The admission that US and Iraqi forces had entered a compound housing a religious site will stoke Arab fury.
But America's defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, branded accusations of a massacre "a lie" and said the operation had resulted in the freeing of a hostage and the capture of weapons including rocket-propelled grenades. "Those are not religious instruments," he commented.
Gen Pace said that the operation had been led by Iraqi special forces, although it included American special forces seeking to track down a Shia terrorist base where kidnap victims were held.
As they approached a large rectangular building they came under heavy fire. "The Iraqi forces themselves went into the main target areas. This is the building inside of which, once they got in there, they found a small minaret and a prayer room … [which] some people are calling a mosque," Gen Pace said.
Pictures issued by Moqtada al-Sadr's radical Shia militia purported to show bodies lying on the floor of the room. Gen Pace said he did not know if American forces had fired during the operation, or whether the dead were killed in the room.
The new version of events appeared to contradict earlier US military accounts that suggested that Sadr's men had moved corpses to make it appear that the Americans had desecrated a religious site. But Mr Rumsfeld was unapologetic about the hesitant and belated account.
"The US government has not got to the point where we are as deft and clever and facile and quick as the enemy that is perfectly capable of lying, having it printed all over the world, and there's no penalty for having lied."
Pictures of the corpses temporarily stalled talks on forming a new Iraqi government.
President Jalal Talabani has demanded that those "responsible" be punished and the governor of Baghdad said he had cut all ties to US forces.
The walled compound is a former Ba'ath party building, known to have been taken over by radical militiamen.
OK, so what's the problem?
Any mosque that harbors terrorists ceases to be a mosque.
Good!
The al-Iraqiya cameraman refers to the Madhi Army dead as “our guys”.
Someone in the background was asking the cameraman to film grenades lying around the corpses, to which the cameraman responded: “I can’t show our guys’ grenades.”
“No, these are American grenades,” the man in the background explained.
“Oh, okay I’ll film them.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603915/posts
RPGs are religious instruments in Islam, Mr. Secretary.
Looking for the downside here.
We either need to go Roman in Iraq or, bring our troops home.
What is happening now with lawyers and hacks picking targets and spending billions of our money is a failure and unsatisfactory.
MEMO to Bush: Pick one.
What doesnt stoke Arab fury?
Well now we see a last trhoes type tactic.
First every group attacked were deemed to be a friggin wedding party.
Now everytime we see success on ourpart or the coalitions part or even Iraqi's part it will be cllaed entering a mosque.
This is utterly rediculous.
So many mosques...so little....nah....we have enough bombs....so little cojones.
One thing for sure. This building did not contain a dome, and was not shaped like a typical mosque. Turns out it had a single mineret attached to it. The crap about us tying people up and killing them is absurd. Surely most Iraqi with a slight amount of grey matter are going to read through this one, and see there was mischief performed by the fat boy's goon squads.
They know these terrorists / thugs we are fighting use these places of "worship" to hide behind - They know we have gone out of our way at protecting these sites....but at times those within them must be confronted.
Yet at every turn they try and paint our forces with a negative brush. They try and paint the WOT in a non-winnable light - They are pathetic....and they will have to answer for their actions - After this life.
Why is it no Iraqi soldiers seem to be speaking up for us?
Well whoopee-sh..
"The admission that US and Iraqi forces had entered a compound housing a religious site will stoke Arab fury."
Oh no! Not more pictures of them jumping up and down in the streets burning things and whining.
But here is the first sentence:
Iraqi and American special forces who attacked an insurgent headquarters in Baghdad were not aware that their target contained a mosque until after the battle...
Blatant and disgusting bias from the MSM.
Sage that is a great question. I would love to see the MSM do some interviews of Iraqi soldiers.
The only reason I can think that they have not done so is that they know what they will have to say.
Either that or they are too scared to be interviewed.
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