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Samarra Buries Its Dead After “Massacre”
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The corridors of Samarra’s hospital bursting at the seams with corpses (AFP)
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Additional
Reporting By Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent
SAMARRA,
October 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Residents of the
Iraqi city of Samarra started collecting the bodies of their relatives
and loved ones killed in a bloody US-led "massacre" as
branded by Iraq’s highest Sunni religious authority.
The
stench of decomposing bodies filled the corridors of Samarra
's hospital as staff wearing surgical masks lifted corpses out of the
building one after the other, shouting out names as they reached the
front doors, where families waited.
Ambulances
guarded by US military vehicles were going around Samarra to collect
the bodies of the dead, while Iraqi national guardsmen roamed the
streets in pickup trucks or stood at intersections, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Many
buildings in the city's commercial district were either riddled with
bullets or partially destroyed, the streets littered with burnt out
vehicles.
At
least 150 people were slain and scores wounded in the two-day joint
offensive against Samarra, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city north of
Baghdad.
According
to medics and hospital officials, most of the victims were civilians.
Hundreds
of Iraqi families, mostly women and children, having been lining up at
the main entrances of
Samarra
to escape the
gates of hell broken loose by the US
occupation forces.
The
Iraqi Red Crescent had also set up more than twenty tents on the
outskirts of the city to help the wounded and destitute.
Massacre
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An Iraqi boy walks ahead with a white flag as his family members take away a dead relative (AFP)
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A
leading Sunni Muslim group blasted the
Samarra
operation as a "massacre" and warned the interim government
that its US-influenced strategy will plunge the country into more
chaos.
"Who
is going to respect [the January] elections paved by the blood of
Iraqis and built on their skulls?" Asked Sheikh Mohammad Bashar
Al-Faidi, spokesman for the respected Association of Muslim Scholars
(AMS), during a press conference at
Baghdad
's Umm Al-Qura mosque on Monday, October 3.
"The
United States
is the world’s most terrorist country in the modern age."
A
resident of the war-battered city, who went under the alias of Abi
Al-Qiqaa, is an eyewitness to the US-led massacre.
He
told the same press conference he saw in one of many heartrending
scenes US
forces shooting dead a child crossing a street.
"They
kept firing at him though he was dead," he said.
In
another horrific incident, the eyewitness added, US forces sprayed a
civilian car with bullets, killing all inside including five children.
"Two
elderly women, to mention but a few examples, were crushed to death by
a US
tank.
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"The United States is the world’s most terrorist country in the modern age," said Faidi (AFP)
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Doctors
inside Samrra’s only hospital complained of sever blood and medicine
shortage to help the tens of people rushed in.
Despite
the bloodshed and destruction, Iraqi Interior Minister Falah Al-Naqib
said the mission was the most successful to date.
US
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was also quick to praise
the cooperation of 3,000 American troops and 2,000 Iraqi National
Guards in the offensive.
"The
reporting from the ground is that things have gone well," the
senior White House advisor told CNN television, although she cautioned
that it was "premature" to say that the operation was
"wrapped up" since "insurgencies have a tendency to wax
and wane."
The
bloody onslaught is a jarring reminder of US raids into the restive
city of Fallujah
, west of
Baghdad
, that claimed hundreds of lives, mostly
women and children.
The
outskirts of Fallujah were smoldering again overnight after US
warplanes bombed a building, claiming between 10 and 15
"insurgents" were inside.
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