U.S. investigates report of Iraqi civilians killed (Ramadi)

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday it was investigating whether civilians, including two children, were killed during a fierce gunbattle in Ramadi on Wednesday that ended with U.S. air strikes destroying several buildings.

U.S. Marine spokesman Lieutenant Shawn Mercer had said on Thursday there were no reports of civilian casualties but that U.S. forces had killed 12 insurgents in the six-hour battle in the volatile western city.

Iraqi officials in Ramadi said 26 people were killed, including some women and children, and a Reuters photographer saw the bodies of an infant and a young boy who had been pulled from the rubble of one of the demolished buildings.

"There was a claim we're looking into right now as to a number of civilian casualties," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver told reporters in Baghdad.

"The Marines did not at first think there were civilian casualties."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070223/us_nm/iraq_ramadi_dc_1

link from yesterday:
U.S. says 12 militants killed in Iraq gunfight (Ramadi)
RAMADI, Iraq, Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. forces killed at least 12 insurgents and wounded three in a six-hour gunbattle in Ramadi involving heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and air strikes, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

1st Lieutenant Shawn Mercer, a spokesman for U.S. Marines operating in western Iraq, said the battle started on Wednesday evening when gunmen attacked U.S. forces in the east of Ramadi, a Sunni insurgent stronghold in Anbar province.

"The scale of the fight eventually led to coalition forces using precision guided munitions (air strikes) and causing damage to a number of structures," Mercer said in an email response to questions.

Residents in Ramadi said three buildings were destroyed in the clashes. A civil defence official and an ambulance driver, both of whom declined to be identified, said as many as 26 people were killed, including some women and children.

Mercer denied that. "We have no reports of civilian casualties and there were no coalition casualties," he said.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2740821

[acmavm]

1. How stupid do they think the world is? Bomb buildings from the air and

no civilian casualties?

:sarcasm:

[Warren Stupidity]

2. The problem is lack of water buffalo

The body count was much easier in Nam-I due to the ready supply of water buffalo. Nam-II unfortunately does not come with these stand ins for the enemy, so it seems we will just have to use women and children. Oh well. Nobody guaranteed an exact repeat.