Ishaqi
Update:
ABC News: U.S. Military Denies New Abuse Allegations at Ishaqi
Horrific images of Iraqi adults and children have fueled new allegations that U.S. troops killed civilians in the Iraqi town of Ishaqi. But ABC News has learned that military officials have completed their investigation and concluded that U.S. forces followed the rules of engagement.
My original post follows:
Now another massacre in Iraq is reported, or rumored, if you prefer. In any case, the Pentagon is investigating the events at Ishaqi on March 15, when a family of eleven was killed.
Anyone interested in the details so far can look at the BBC video, Google News sources, or (for the strong of stomach) the Chris Floyd link below. I included that link, with its full title to make a point about Haditha and its impact.
From now on, any report of American atrocities will be given credence, by default. Civilians have been dying in Iraq, some at the hands of the terrorists, some by communal violence, and some by American military. Before the credible reports from Haditha, we could confidently dismiss rumors of atrocities. Now, that is no longer so. From now on when any Iraqi civilian is killed, any survivor can accuse American troops, find a compliant journalist to report the claim, and further damage our reputation. Such reports now have automatic credibility; this is the message of Haditha.
You may or may not want to read Floyd’s hit piece:
What happened in the village of Abu Sifa, in the rural Al Ishaqi district north of Baghdad, on the Ides of March? The murk of war – the natural blur of unbuckled event, and its artificial augmentation by professional massagers – shrouds the details of the actual operation. But here is what we know.We know that U.S. forces conducted a raid on a house in the village on March 15. We know that the Pentagon said the American troops were “targeting an individual suspected of supporting foreign fighters for the al-Qaeda in Iraq terror network,” when their team came under fire, and that the troops “returned fire, utilizing both air and ground assets.” We know that the Pentagon said that “only” one man, two women and one child were killed in the raid, which destroyed a house in the village.
The rhetoric gets worse, a lot worse, and the images are grotesque.
But all such anti-American promoters, both Iraqis and Westerners, will now seize on every ambiguous death, every mistake of the Coalition, every dead child, to claim “another deliberate American atrocity.”
Rick Moran points out that this story was reported six weeks ago and debunked then. He properly calls BBC to task. I share Rick’s frustration, but we better get used to it, because the “atrocity a day” theme has taken root.
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