rokus2595
01-12-2004, 08:22 PM
U.S. Soldiers Kill 2 Iraqis After Bomb Explodes Near Convoy
By EDWARD WONG
AGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 12 — American soldiers killed an Iraqi man and a boy tonight and wounded four others in a car that was driving behind their convoy after a roadside bomb went off nearby, according to witnesses, a police official and relatives of the family in the car.
The soldiers, traveling in a convoy of two Humvees, opened fire on the family, who were riding in a dark blue station wagon, after the bomb exploded, on Palestine Street about 300 yards from the Oil Ministry, witnesses said.
The family's driver, a man whose first name was Haider, was killed, as was a 10-year-old boy named Mustafa in the seat beside the driver, family members, a neighbor and a police officer said. Mustafa's mother and two of his siblings and his aunt were injured and taken to local hospitals.
"You want to know the truth?" said Lt. Muhammad Ali, a policeman who was driving away from Al Kindi hospital with several colleagues after taking one of the women there. "I'll tell you the truth. The Americans did this. I know after this conversation they will fire me from my job, but that's what happened."
By the end of the day, in violence around the country involving the American military, one American soldier and 9 Iraqis had been killed and 10 Iraqis and 2 American soldiers wounded.
A soldier at the scene of the Palestine Street violence in Baghdad said that the bomb had killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded two others and that they had been in the blue station wagon. Capt. Jason P. Beck, a spokesman for the First Armored Division, which controls most of Baghdad, said three hours after the incident that he had not received a report of the episode.
Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed a soldier in the First Armored Division and wounded two others, military officials said.
The military also said that soldiers killed 7 of about 40 members of a gang of smugglers that was siphoning oil from a pipeline south of Samarra, a stronghold of guerrilla fighters that lies 60 miles north of Baghdad.
At about 9 local time tonight, suspected guerrilla fighters fired rockets in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum of 2.2 million people in northeastern Baghdad, Captain Beck said. Later, suspected insurgents fired two mortar rounds at the Baghdad Hotel on the east bank of the Tigris River but failed to hit anything, a hotel guard said.
The events outside the Oil Ministry also took place about 9 p.m., when a bomb exploded on the median of Palestine Street after the two Humvees had passed it, said Feras Ali, 42, a resident on the block. The explosion shattered the windows of nearby houses.
The Humvees, which witnesses said did not appear to be damaged, then turned in the wide road, which was slick from a driving rainstorm, they said.
Soldiers opened fire on the family in a station wagon traveling behind them, said the witnesses, relatives of the victims and Lt. Ali, the police officer. The station wagon crashed into a wall about 200 feet past where the bomb had exploded, and soldiers soon began pulling bodies out, the witnesses said.
At about 9:20 p.m., more than two dozen soldiers from the First Armored Division were walking around the scene, inspecting the wrecked car, the ground and the area of the median where the bomb had exploded. One soldier warned a reporter and a photographer to leave the area, saying that "something is about to happen that you won't like." A couple of armored vehicles sat on Palestine Street, blocking several lanes as rain continued to fall.
At nearby Al Kindi hospital, in the room where three of the wounded from the car were being treated, a woman yelled at a visitor and a Palestinian interpreter as soon as they walked in. "God curse the Americans!" shouted the woman, a relative of the victims. "God curse those who brought them to us!"
The woman's husband, Muhammad Abdul Rahman, 40, said his sister-in-law, Stabrak Abdul Wahab, was the mother of the family in the car and had been taken to a neurological hospital to be treated for her wounds. Mustafa, the child killed, was her son. Stabrak's sister, Hiyam Abdul Wahab, sat on a bed with a dazed expression on her face, a thick white gauze bandage stained with blood wrapped around her forehead.
Next to her sat two more of Stabrak's children, a boy and a girl, both also injured. Mr. Abdul Rahman's wife passed a bottle of water among the wounded.
"Hey Muhammad, come over here," she said frantically. "There's a bullet in her leg and in her chest. She's bleeding very badly."
Mr. Abdul Rahman said to the visitor: "The Americans shot them, but look, the problem now is there's no one to take care of them. There are no doctors, no treatment. This is horrible."
A nurse said that Stabrak Abdul Wahab had been treated in the same hospital for asthma earlier in the evening and had left with her three children and her sister. That was when they ran into the American convoy, she added.
Also today, riots continued in southern of Iraq, as about 400 protesters marched on a government building in the city of Kut to demand jobs, The Associated Press reported. Someone in the crowd threw a grenade at Ukrainian soldiers and Iraqi policemen guarding the building, wounding five people, an official said. Ukrainian soldiers then fired into the air to disperse the crowd, he added, and wounded one protester.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/international/middleeast/12CND-IRAQ.html?hp
By EDWARD WONG
AGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 12 — American soldiers killed an Iraqi man and a boy tonight and wounded four others in a car that was driving behind their convoy after a roadside bomb went off nearby, according to witnesses, a police official and relatives of the family in the car.
The soldiers, traveling in a convoy of two Humvees, opened fire on the family, who were riding in a dark blue station wagon, after the bomb exploded, on Palestine Street about 300 yards from the Oil Ministry, witnesses said.
The family's driver, a man whose first name was Haider, was killed, as was a 10-year-old boy named Mustafa in the seat beside the driver, family members, a neighbor and a police officer said. Mustafa's mother and two of his siblings and his aunt were injured and taken to local hospitals.
"You want to know the truth?" said Lt. Muhammad Ali, a policeman who was driving away from Al Kindi hospital with several colleagues after taking one of the women there. "I'll tell you the truth. The Americans did this. I know after this conversation they will fire me from my job, but that's what happened."
By the end of the day, in violence around the country involving the American military, one American soldier and 9 Iraqis had been killed and 10 Iraqis and 2 American soldiers wounded.
A soldier at the scene of the Palestine Street violence in Baghdad said that the bomb had killed two Iraqi civilians and wounded two others and that they had been in the blue station wagon. Capt. Jason P. Beck, a spokesman for the First Armored Division, which controls most of Baghdad, said three hours after the incident that he had not received a report of the episode.
Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed a soldier in the First Armored Division and wounded two others, military officials said.
The military also said that soldiers killed 7 of about 40 members of a gang of smugglers that was siphoning oil from a pipeline south of Samarra, a stronghold of guerrilla fighters that lies 60 miles north of Baghdad.
At about 9 local time tonight, suspected guerrilla fighters fired rockets in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum of 2.2 million people in northeastern Baghdad, Captain Beck said. Later, suspected insurgents fired two mortar rounds at the Baghdad Hotel on the east bank of the Tigris River but failed to hit anything, a hotel guard said.
The events outside the Oil Ministry also took place about 9 p.m., when a bomb exploded on the median of Palestine Street after the two Humvees had passed it, said Feras Ali, 42, a resident on the block. The explosion shattered the windows of nearby houses.
The Humvees, which witnesses said did not appear to be damaged, then turned in the wide road, which was slick from a driving rainstorm, they said.
Soldiers opened fire on the family in a station wagon traveling behind them, said the witnesses, relatives of the victims and Lt. Ali, the police officer. The station wagon crashed into a wall about 200 feet past where the bomb had exploded, and soldiers soon began pulling bodies out, the witnesses said.
At about 9:20 p.m., more than two dozen soldiers from the First Armored Division were walking around the scene, inspecting the wrecked car, the ground and the area of the median where the bomb had exploded. One soldier warned a reporter and a photographer to leave the area, saying that "something is about to happen that you won't like." A couple of armored vehicles sat on Palestine Street, blocking several lanes as rain continued to fall.
At nearby Al Kindi hospital, in the room where three of the wounded from the car were being treated, a woman yelled at a visitor and a Palestinian interpreter as soon as they walked in. "God curse the Americans!" shouted the woman, a relative of the victims. "God curse those who brought them to us!"
The woman's husband, Muhammad Abdul Rahman, 40, said his sister-in-law, Stabrak Abdul Wahab, was the mother of the family in the car and had been taken to a neurological hospital to be treated for her wounds. Mustafa, the child killed, was her son. Stabrak's sister, Hiyam Abdul Wahab, sat on a bed with a dazed expression on her face, a thick white gauze bandage stained with blood wrapped around her forehead.
Next to her sat two more of Stabrak's children, a boy and a girl, both also injured. Mr. Abdul Rahman's wife passed a bottle of water among the wounded.
"Hey Muhammad, come over here," she said frantically. "There's a bullet in her leg and in her chest. She's bleeding very badly."
Mr. Abdul Rahman said to the visitor: "The Americans shot them, but look, the problem now is there's no one to take care of them. There are no doctors, no treatment. This is horrible."
A nurse said that Stabrak Abdul Wahab had been treated in the same hospital for asthma earlier in the evening and had left with her three children and her sister. That was when they ran into the American convoy, she added.
Also today, riots continued in southern of Iraq, as about 400 protesters marched on a government building in the city of Kut to demand jobs, The Associated Press reported. Someone in the crowd threw a grenade at Ukrainian soldiers and Iraqi policemen guarding the building, wounding five people, an official said. Ukrainian soldiers then fired into the air to disperse the crowd, he added, and wounded one protester.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/international/middleeast/12CND-IRAQ.html?hp