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[img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img]
Here's a thought. What if there was a particular Kurdish leader the US was trying to take out - no one ever likes everybody on the allies' team, you know. What if it was intentional? [img]graemlins/erm.gif[/img] I know, perhaps a little too James Bond conspiracy theory, but ....
But, reason dictates it is simply more US buffonery. God, why must we always look like the big dumb overpowered graceless bullies. [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img]
Todays NY Times:
U.S. Warplane Bombs Coalition Convoy, Killing Several People
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:10 a.m. ET
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. aircraft mistakenly bombed a convoy of allied Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 12 and wounding 45, including a brother of the man who runs half the Kurdish enclave, a spokesman for the leader's party said.
The bombing came when Kurdish ``peshmerga'' fighters and U.S. Special Forces called in airstrikes during heavy fighting with Iraqi forces at a strategic crossroads south of Irbil, the party official said. It was not clear there were any American casualties.
Among the wounded was Wajy Barzani, younger brother of Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani, who controls the western sector of Kurdish autonomous enclave.
The younger Barzani was in intensive care, Hoshyar Zebari, a senior KDP member, said at a hospital in Irbil where the wounded were taken. But he gave no details on his injuries.
The bombing ``will not undermine our resolve to work together,'' Zebari said. Three senior KDP military commanders, Saeed Abdullah, Abdul Rahman and Mamasta Hehman, also were among the injured.
Massoud Barzani and the entire top ranks of the KDP were at the hospital, along with U.S. officers. The Americans' military vehicles were parked outside the hospital where a huge throng had gathered at the entrance. Relatives of the wounded were escorted through the crowds.
One U.S. officer said no American casualties were at the hospital and that he did not know if Americans were injured.
U.S. Special Forces have been working alongside Kurdish fighters, helping plan the assault against Iraqi forces in the north and calling in airstrikes to support the Kurds' advance into Baghdad-controlled territory.
Zebari said the friendly fire bombing took place during ``serious fighting'' near Dibagah, 25 miles south of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region and center for KDP rule.
They called in close air support, he said, and ``two U.S. planes mistakenly bombed'' the convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles, which was stationary at the time, Zebari said.
British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent John Simpson reported from the scene of the incident, saying the convoy contained between eight and 10 cars, two of which carried U.S. Special Forces troops.
``This is just a scene from hell here,'' Simpson said. ``All the vehicles on fire, there are bodies burning around me, bodies lying around, bits of bodies on the ground. ... The Americans saw this convoy and they bombed it. They hit their own people.''
The BBC said Simpson was wounded in the leg by shrapnel.
Zebari said the BBC crew was not ``embedded'' but was traveling along with the convoy.
The Kurdish and American force apparently had pushed the Iraqis out of Dibagah, which is on a key road between the major Baghdad-controlled cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, and control of it could be a pivotal victory.
But after the bombing accident, the convoy pulled back. The outcome of the battle was not immediately clear.
[ 04-06-2003, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]
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