U.S. Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis at Party

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

(4:49 PM ET)

By Scheherezade Faramarzi

Associated Press Writer

``This was a wedding and the U.S. planes came and attacked the people at a house. Is this the democracy and freedom that President Bush has brought us? There was no reason.''

A video grab image shows Iraqi men carrying the body of a victim in the cemetry in Ramadi, following a reported U.S. attack in a nearby village, May 19, 2004. The U.S. army said on Thursday it killed around 40 people in an attack on suspected foreign fighters in Iraq near the Syrian border, but disputed reports that the victims were members of a wedding party. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, told Reuters the attack early on Wednesday was within the military's rules of engagement.

Image Credit: Al Arabiya Television via Reuters

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- AP
A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party in the remote desert near the border with Syria, killing more than 40 people, most of them women and children, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it was investigating.

Associated Press Television News footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled one atop the other. Several were children, one of whom had been decapitated.

The attack occurred about 2:45 a.m. in a desert region near the border with Syria and Jordan, according to Lt. Col. Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of the city of Ramadi. He said between 42 and 45 people died, including 15 children and 10 women. Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.

The area, a desolate region populated only by shepherds, is popular with smugglers, including weapons smugglers, and the U.S. military suspects militants use it as a route to slip in from Syria to fight the Americans. It is under constant surveillance by American forces.

Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said revelers had fired volleys of gunfire into the air in a traditional wedding celebration before the attack took place. American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.

Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a U.S. military spokesman, said the military was investigating.

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2004 © The Associated Press.

Dan