Donna
23-09-03, 22:35
September 23, 2003
U.S. Fighter Jets Bomb House in Falluja, Family Says
By ALEX BERENSON
ICHIR, Iraq, Sept. 23 — Tahseen Ali Khalaf was asleep beside his brother Hussein when the shooting started early this morning outside their ramshackle house in this farming community 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Then a pair of American fighter jets swooped in, dropping nearly a dozen bombs in a highly unusual strike. Now Tahseen, 12, and Hussein, 10, are lying beside each other again, in the main hospital in Falluja, a building filled lately with the apparently accidental victims of American attacks.
The bombing at the house in Sichir killed three men and wounded another, in addition to Tahseen and Hussein, family members said today. The American military said the incident occurred after American troops were attacked. But family members described an attack that came seemingly out of nowhere just before 2 a.m. An American patrol fired on their house, five rooms of dilapidated brick and concrete contained by cinderblock walls, for about 15 minutes, they said.
The patrol retreated for a few minutes, and then jets flew overhead and bombs fell, blasting a hole in a room used to store grain and throwing shrapnel and panic everywhere.
Ali Khalaf Muhammad, the father of Tahseen and Hussein, was hit by shrapnel and retreated to a corner of his room, trying without luck to staunch the bleeding that killed him, they said.
Salem Khalil Ismael and Sadi Fakhri Faiyadh, who were among the 15 family members sleeping at the house, also died, the boys said.
The family said it had offered no resistance to the American patrol. No bullet cartridges or weapons were visible this afternoon at their house, only bomb craters and holes punched in concrete by large-caliber weapons.
"We don't have any bullets in the house — it's a safe and quiet area," Abd Rashid Muhammed, who was injured in the attack, said from his hospital bed in Falluja. "Is it logical to attack children, people sleeping in their beds during the night?"
The American military confirmed the incident today but said soldiers had fired only after they were attacked. "Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne were attacked by the enemy," said Specialist Anthony Reinoso, a spokesman for the American military. "The attackers fled into a building. Coalition forces pursued them and formed a defense perimeter. Air support was called into assist."
Specialist Reinoso said one "enemy" had been killed in the incident, and no American troops were killed or wounded. He said he had no further information and did not know why the patrol had called in jets. Since Saddam Hussein's regime fell in April, the United States has rarely used jets in its battles with guerrillas, although the roar of fighters can sometimes be heard over Baghdad.
The military's version of the incident at the house seemed difficult to reconcile with the stories told by the family of Mr. Muhammad, the wounds suffered by Tahseen and Hussein, and the physical evidence in Sichir.
Bomb craters littered the yard of the house, and family members pointed to two places where unexploded bombs had landed but failed to detonate. Bullet holes punctured steel doors and shattered windows, as well as a picture of Mr. Muhammad that hung in the corner of the room where he died.
For the second time in two weeks, a unit of the 82nd Airborne appeared to have attacked an unresisting group of Iraqis. On Sept. 11, a patrol from the division shot a convoy of three Iraqi police vehicles on a road a few miles away from here, killing at least eight officers and one Jordanian hospital worker.
"We are only peasants here," said Zaidan Khalaf Muhammad, the brother of Ali Muhammad. The American troops "came like terrorists," he said.
Falluja, a city three miles south of Sichir, has been a center of resistance to the United States occupation of Iraq. But Zaidan Muhammad and other members of his family said that they were farmers who had never attacked American troops. That may change now, they said.
"They are invaders, mercenaries," said Ghanem Muhammad, a cousin of Ali. "From now on, the war will start."
In keeping with Islamic tradition, which specifies that the dead be buried as quickly as possible, funerals for all three men were held today, the family said. Under a tent not far from the house, the men of the Muhammad family sat quietly in the midday heat, receiving visitors. Inside the house, women chanted and beat themselves in ritual mourning.
"Woe, woe, we've lost our protector," they cried. "The house has lost its protector."
At the hospital in Falluja, Tahseen, his younger brother Hussein, and Abd Rashid Muhammed lay beside each other on three low beds in a room filled with flies. A cut ran across Tahseen's forehead, while two bandages covered the wounds on the face of Hussein, who appeared to be the most seriously wounded of the three.
When the bombs fell, "I thought it was Ali Babas," Tahseen said, using Iraqi slang for thieves. "I didn't realize it was Americans."
New York Times
U.S. Fighter Jets Bomb House in Falluja, Family Says
By ALEX BERENSON
ICHIR, Iraq, Sept. 23 — Tahseen Ali Khalaf was asleep beside his brother Hussein when the shooting started early this morning outside their ramshackle house in this farming community 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Then a pair of American fighter jets swooped in, dropping nearly a dozen bombs in a highly unusual strike. Now Tahseen, 12, and Hussein, 10, are lying beside each other again, in the main hospital in Falluja, a building filled lately with the apparently accidental victims of American attacks.
The bombing at the house in Sichir killed three men and wounded another, in addition to Tahseen and Hussein, family members said today. The American military said the incident occurred after American troops were attacked. But family members described an attack that came seemingly out of nowhere just before 2 a.m. An American patrol fired on their house, five rooms of dilapidated brick and concrete contained by cinderblock walls, for about 15 minutes, they said.
The patrol retreated for a few minutes, and then jets flew overhead and bombs fell, blasting a hole in a room used to store grain and throwing shrapnel and panic everywhere.
Ali Khalaf Muhammad, the father of Tahseen and Hussein, was hit by shrapnel and retreated to a corner of his room, trying without luck to staunch the bleeding that killed him, they said.
Salem Khalil Ismael and Sadi Fakhri Faiyadh, who were among the 15 family members sleeping at the house, also died, the boys said.
The family said it had offered no resistance to the American patrol. No bullet cartridges or weapons were visible this afternoon at their house, only bomb craters and holes punched in concrete by large-caliber weapons.
"We don't have any bullets in the house — it's a safe and quiet area," Abd Rashid Muhammed, who was injured in the attack, said from his hospital bed in Falluja. "Is it logical to attack children, people sleeping in their beds during the night?"
The American military confirmed the incident today but said soldiers had fired only after they were attacked. "Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne were attacked by the enemy," said Specialist Anthony Reinoso, a spokesman for the American military. "The attackers fled into a building. Coalition forces pursued them and formed a defense perimeter. Air support was called into assist."
Specialist Reinoso said one "enemy" had been killed in the incident, and no American troops were killed or wounded. He said he had no further information and did not know why the patrol had called in jets. Since Saddam Hussein's regime fell in April, the United States has rarely used jets in its battles with guerrillas, although the roar of fighters can sometimes be heard over Baghdad.
The military's version of the incident at the house seemed difficult to reconcile with the stories told by the family of Mr. Muhammad, the wounds suffered by Tahseen and Hussein, and the physical evidence in Sichir.
Bomb craters littered the yard of the house, and family members pointed to two places where unexploded bombs had landed but failed to detonate. Bullet holes punctured steel doors and shattered windows, as well as a picture of Mr. Muhammad that hung in the corner of the room where he died.
For the second time in two weeks, a unit of the 82nd Airborne appeared to have attacked an unresisting group of Iraqis. On Sept. 11, a patrol from the division shot a convoy of three Iraqi police vehicles on a road a few miles away from here, killing at least eight officers and one Jordanian hospital worker.
"We are only peasants here," said Zaidan Khalaf Muhammad, the brother of Ali Muhammad. The American troops "came like terrorists," he said.
Falluja, a city three miles south of Sichir, has been a center of resistance to the United States occupation of Iraq. But Zaidan Muhammad and other members of his family said that they were farmers who had never attacked American troops. That may change now, they said.
"They are invaders, mercenaries," said Ghanem Muhammad, a cousin of Ali. "From now on, the war will start."
In keeping with Islamic tradition, which specifies that the dead be buried as quickly as possible, funerals for all three men were held today, the family said. Under a tent not far from the house, the men of the Muhammad family sat quietly in the midday heat, receiving visitors. Inside the house, women chanted and beat themselves in ritual mourning.
"Woe, woe, we've lost our protector," they cried. "The house has lost its protector."
At the hospital in Falluja, Tahseen, his younger brother Hussein, and Abd Rashid Muhammed lay beside each other on three low beds in a room filled with flies. A cut ran across Tahseen's forehead, while two bandages covered the wounds on the face of Hussein, who appeared to be the most seriously wounded of the three.
When the bombs fell, "I thought it was Ali Babas," Tahseen said, using Iraqi slang for thieves. "I didn't realize it was Americans."
New York Times