US says Iraq air strike kills 11, mostly civilians

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it killed 11 people in a helicopter attack on a group of men seen planting a roadside bomb north of Baghdad on Tuesday, but police and residents said the dead were farmers, women and children.

The U.S. military acknowledged that six of those killed were civilians and said it regretted their deaths, but it blamed militants for using civilians as a shield.

The air strike was the third resulting in civilian deaths in two weeks and comes as the U.S. military's reliance on airpower to target militants is under increased scrutiny from the Iraqi government and the United Nations mission in Iraq.

U.N. officials have expressed concern at the number of civilians killed in air strikes and said more care must be taken in military operations to protect them.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23266364.htm

[gratuitous]

1. Yesterday, all the dead were criminals

Now more than half of them are civilians. This is the Pax Americana? Any retribution from the survivors or others angry on their behalf, of course, will only be because they're terrorists who hate us for our freedom, and not because our military has a bunch of trigger-happy, overstressed, stretched to the limit, or broken individuals who are no longer fit to serve, so stop saying that.

[happygoluckytoyou]

2. TONY SNOW HERE---->

if the dirty commies in iraq wouldn't populate their roadsides with civilians we wouldn't have'ta kill them...but as i bow before the holy trinity, Ronny, George and the other George, i know that those killed had probably done some other thing, like not being born a perfected christian, and deserved to die anyway.
iraq is not about oil. it is about power. and power is about oil. it is the transitive property of killing.
abu graib is not about torture. it is about the destructive power of cameras. we removed the cameras, and look...no more torture.
this is tony the snowjob snow, saying that we good christians are going to heaven before the trial begins.
god will pardon us.
the parents and families of those accidental colateral damage will forgive us.
the american people are too busy playing with their ipods to care.

bush: if we invade iran, millions of innocent people may die, also we may injure a white camel

tony: a white camel ?

bush: see--- i told you nobody would care about millions of innocent people

[scarface2004]

3. are there no rules of engagement?!?!?!

god we re a bunch of effing nazis now!!! zeig heil!!!!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. Kill them all and let the blame fall where it may.

At least that appears to be the new rules.

[Barrett808]

4. k & r

[razzleberry]

5. all the dead are civilians .n/t.

[Robbien]

7. An African news report has a detailed story on how this occurred

An officer from the police headquarters at Tikrit, the capital of Salaheddin province which houses Samarra, earlier said 10 people had died and another 10 were wounded when US helicopters fired at them.

The Tikrit police officer said the US helicopters first fired at three farmers outside Dijla.

"These wounded farmers were then brought to the town by a group of people. This group later came under attack from troops in US helicopters," he said, adding that in all 10 people were killed and another 10 wounded.

. . .

The dead included four military-age males, five women and a child, the military said.

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/658628.htm

Basically just an outright massacre.