Another blunder!

[Donut]

An American plane has dropped a bomb on a US/Kurdish column in Northern Iraq. Many dead and injured including a senior Kurdish leader, US special forces and Kurdish troops. John Simpson, one of the most senior journalist in Britain has been injured.

In broad daylight! I hope the pilot was 100% sure it was the enemy.

[Donut]

An increible report from the BBC World Affairs Editor. As he was being treated for shrapnel wounds in his leg and blood from his ears he reported a 'scene from hell'. Bodies lying burning on the ground, bits of bodies all over the place, exploding ammunition, many dead many wounded.

[ 04-06-2003, 05:04 AM: Message edited by: Donut ]

[Charlie]

bump

[Skunk]

John Simpson is a populist reporter who never enters a situation with an open mind. Be interesting to see what he makes of this one!

Initial reports via the front of the hospital where the wounded were being treated relate that there were incoming Iraqi missles at the same time and it was impossible to tell where the missle came from that hit the convoy, however later reports (still in the field, nothing confirmed by eyewitness reports or any investigation of the scene) say that Special Forces working with the Kurdish fighters in the North called in an air strike to take out advancing Iraqi tanks and it appeared as if one of the bombs dropped landed on the convoy instead (they were close enough to the tanks to be under the fire of the tank's missles).

Unfortunate to say the least, esp with the advanced technology the fighter planes use and the capability they have to be precise in their targets.

Still, nothing is "official" since there has not yet been any on-site investigation short of the wounded getting themselves and their commrades out of harm's way and to the hospital and "confusing" was commonly used to describe the whole scene.

I would imagine that if these forces mean anything to the coalition, that they will have 15 hr per flight air protection (constant air to ground recon), the same as the Marines in and around Baghdad...let's hope so anyway.

[Timber Loftis]

[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 ]

[Mordenheim]

Well my retired Marine (gunney Sgt) father who fought in vietnam said : "I bet it was the stupid Air Force. They should not be flying close air support. They killed more marines in vietnam then the VC"

lol

very sad but war is hell and with so MANY forces do you really expect mistakes to not happen? I mean really? we are human prone to mistakes

typo's

[ 04-06-2003, 12:34 PM: Message edited by: Mordenheim ]

[Animal]

Timber, you may have a point.

With the technology available to the US, some saying that they could pinpoint a flea on an elephants ass, you do have to wonder how mistakes like this can continually be made in this day of laser guided and remote controlled weaponry.

I would imagine that from that height and speed, a Kurdish column would probably look very similiar to Iraqi forces, but shoudln't the pilots be getting confirmation before dropping ordinance?

[Bardan the Slayer]

It seems to me that the US fighter pilots are just a tiny little bit too eager to drop bombs and kill things. If they excercised a little more restraint, this type of thing would *not* be responsible for the majority of coalition casualties.

Maybe it's that most of the armed forces are so young, and by now half of the pilots are children of the videogame generation. The distance and lack of human contact between then and the things they are bombing makes them forget exactly what horrors they are unleashing, and that bombs are not smart enough to differentiate between the different sides in the conflict.

Maybe someone should gently remind the forces that that is their job.

Still, on the other hand, given the truly amazing amount of military weaponry that has been emplyed over the past fortnight, maybe the casualties truly are simply representative of the chaos of war, which is forgiveable, and not incompetence, which is not.

[ 04-06-2003, 02:13 PM: Message edited by: Bardan the Slayer ]

[Charlie]

bump