Massacre
In Ramadi
By Dahr Jamail &
Ali al-Fadhily
18 November, 2006
Inter
Press Service
RAMADI, Nov 17 (IPS)
- U.S. military tank fire killed scores of civilians in Ramadi, capital
of Al-Anbar province, late Monday night, according to witnesses and
doctors. Anger and frustration were evident at the hospitals and during
the funerals in the following days.
Iraqi doctors and witnesses
at the scene of the attack said U.S. tanks killed 35 civilians when
they shelled several homes in the Al-Dhubat area of the city.
Ramadi, located 110 km west
of Baghdad, has been beset with sporadic but intense violence between
occupation forces and insurgents for several months.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people
carried the 35 coffins of the dead to a graveyard in a funeral procession
which closely resembled an angry demonstration.
"We heard the bombing
and we thought it was the usual fighting between resistance fighters
and the Americans, but we soon realised it was bombing by large cannons,"
60-year-old Haji Jassim explained to IPS at the burial. "We weren't
allowed by the Americans to reach the destroyed houses to try to rescue
those who were buried, so certainly many of them bled to death."
Jassim claimed that everyone
killed was innocent, that they were not fighters. He said that when
he and others attempted to reach the rubble of the destroyed homes,
located near mosques whose minaret's loudspeakers had broadcast pleas
for help, "There was a big American force that stopped us and told
us the usual ugly phrases we hear from them every day."
Jassim, speaking with IPS
while several other witnesses listened while nodding their heads, said
that ambulances did not appear on the scene for hours because "we
realised that the Americans did not allow them to move," and that
as a result, "there were people buried under the rubble who were
bleeding to death while there was still a chance to rescue them."
Jassim then burst into tears
and walked away saying prayers to Allah to bless the souls of the dead.
A doctor at Ramadi's main
hospital, Abdullah Salih, told reporters that 35 bodies had been brought
in and he also believed that others had not been retrieved since access
had been limited by ongoing U.S. military operations.
Another doctor, Kamal al-Ani,
said that in addition to the dead, another 17 wounded had been brought
into the hospital.
The scene at the hospital
was tragic as doctors confirmed the reason of death for many as severe
bleeding that had gone on for several hours. Most of the doctors were
unwilling to discuss too many details for fear of U.S. military reprisals.
"You can notice the
number of dead is at least twice as high as the number of wounded,"
one of the doctors, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. A
local Iraqi policeman who identified himself as Khalif Obeidi told IPS
that tanks had destroyed several houses in the area during the U.S.
raid, killing more than 30 civilians.
"We know that those
killed were innocent," said Obeidi, "although there have been
attacks on the Americans from near that area in the past."
Residents of the city and
relatives of the dead who were at the funeral were furious.
"There is no other way
for the Sunnis than to fight," Ali Khudher, a 25-year-old carpenter
who lost a relative in the attack told IPS. "It is a religious
war and no one can deny that now."
Others who attended the mass
funeral chanted anti-American, anti-Israeli, anti-Iranian and even slogans
against the Islamic Party which is now part of the Iraqi government.
Tempers run high in Ramadi
also because the city has often been the scene of large-scale U.S. military
operations and their inherent forms of collective punishment.
Last June, thousands of residents
were forced from their homes due to military operations, according to
Maurizio Mascia, programme manager for the Italian Consortium of Solidarity
(ICS), a non-governmental group based in Amman, Jordan that provides
relief to refugees in Iraq.
At that time, Mascia told
IPS, "The Americans, instead of attacking the city all at once
like they've done in their previous operations in cities like Fallujah
and Al-Qa'im, are using helicopters and ground troops to attack one
district at a time in Ramadi."
Mirroring a complaint heard
often from residents of Ramadi, Mascia said, "The main dangers
for the population are the MNF (multi-national force) at the checkpoints
and the snipers: both usually shoot at any movement that they consider
dangerous -- causing many victims among civilians."
In a phone conversation with
IPS, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad said he had no specific
details of the incident and that "the U.S. military has been conducting
ongoing patrols and security details in Al-Anbar for months now. Our
efforts are always to attack the terrorists and protect the civilian
population."
Posted by Dahr_Jamail at
November 17, 2006 06:01 PM
©2004-2006 Dahr Jamail.
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