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U.S.
Troops Kill 54 People In Iraq Bloodbath
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Two Iraqi men mourn following the U.S. army attack in Samaraa (AFP)
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BAGHDAD,
December 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The U.S. army
confirmed Monday, December 1, that U.S. soldiers killed 54 people on
Sunday, November 30, in the Iraqi town of Samarra as witnesses
asserting that the bloodbath had claimed only eight lives of innocent
people.
"The
death toll is now 54
dead," said a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division which
patrols restive north-central Iraq, without specifying whether they
were resistance fighters or civilians and without volunteering his
name.
Earlier,
Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald put at 46 the number of the dead and
18 the injured, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
But
several witnesses in the Iraqi town asserted to Al-Jazeera
correspondent that the dead were not "attackers but innocent
people, including Iranians who were en route to visit the mausoleum of
a Shiite authority", adding that some of them were killed during
their prayers.
They
further said that the number of the dead has been "greatly
exaggerated" by the U.S. spokesman, noting that it did not go
beyond "eight killed and 55 injured".
Furthermore,
workers at a nearby state-owned pharmaceutical plant contested the
American version saying at least two colleagues were killed and many
wounded as they walked out of the factory gates at the end of their
shift and a U.S. tank started firing in all directions, according to
AFP.
An
AFP correspondent saw blood spattered on the ground and bullet holes
in a sentry box near the factory gates.
As
staff at the State Enterprise for the Manufacture of Drugs and Medical
Equipment finished their shift, a second tank arrived and opened up
with machine guns, Al-Jazeera quoted Reuters news agency as
having said.
'Largest
Attack'
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A man holds two Iranian passports belonging to victims who died in a charred passenger bus during the attack (AFP)
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Earlier
in the day, the U.S. spokesman said that a U.S. military convoy came
under multiple ambush attempts, describing the attacks as the
"largest" on the division in Iraq to date.
"The
attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at the
convoy from rooftops of buildings and from the alleyways,"
MacDonald said, adding that mortars and improvised bombs also were
used against the U.S. soldiers.
"One
attack occurred on the east side of the city and one in the west.
Soldiers fought the attackers in numerous locations in both ambushes.
"At
each location, soldiers from the 1st Battalion 66th Armor and military
police returned fire with small arms, 120 millimeter tank rounds and
25 millimeter canon fired from Bradley vehicles," the spokesman
said, pointing out that five U.S. soldiers and a civilian were wounded
in the fighting.
He
continued: "The attackers attempted to block one of the convoys'
way with a makeshift barricade. The barricade was immediately
breached," he said.
In
a third attack, he added, another U.S. military convoy came under
small arms fire attack from four men traveling in a car.
"We're
sending a clear message that anyone who attempts to attack our convoys
will pay the price," said MacDonald, speaking to journalists at
the division's headquarters in Tikrit.
The
events capped the worst weekend in seven months of occupation which
saw the
deaths of seven Spaniards, two Koreans, two Japanese, two U.S.
soldiers and a Colombian.
Ninety-nine
occupation troops were said to have died in Iraq during November,
according to a BBC count. They included 82 U.S. troops, and 17
Italian soldiers.
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