Reply #1: One sure result of raid: strong anger

[ProSense]

Posted on Tue, Oct. 23, 2007

One sure result of raid: strong anger

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN
McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD -- Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood seethed with anger Monday over a U.S. military raid that U.S. officials said targeted a kidnapping ring but that Iraqis say killed as many as 17 innocent civilians, including women and children.

U.S. officials declined to provide more information on the Sunday raid, but they continued to insist that no civilians were among the 49 people killed during the bloody sweep.

It was the latest violent incident in which U.S. and Iraqi accounts differed radically.

U.S. military officials said U.S. troops came under attack in Sadr City on three separate occasions and that only insurgents were killed in the ensuing combat. Iraqi officials denounced that version and called for an investigation.

"People in Sadr City are upset with the Americans, the Iraqi government. Why can't they protect the innocent?" said Jassim Hashim, a 35-year-old train engineer who said he was shot in the leg during the raids.

more