False
Casualty Counts
By Dahr Jamail
Electronic Iraq,
29 January 2004
Yesterday in Khaldiya,
60 miles west of Baghdad, a powerful roadside bomb exploded killing
US soldiers. Iraqi civilians were killed by US soldiers gunfire
during the aftermath. However, questions about the conflicting numbers
as to the number of dead US soldiers and Iraqi civilians remain.
In a CENTCOM press
release for the incident, the US Military claims that three task force
All American soldiers were killed in the blast by the Improvised
Explosive Device (IED), and one Iraqi killed. The press release also
states that one soldier and several Iraqis were wounded.
Witnesses at the
scene today told a very different story, as did personnel at the Ramadi
Hospital where the civilian Iraqi casualties were taken.
Mohammed (last name
withheld), a 25 year old Iraqi man who lives near the scene, said, I
saw 12 US soldiers killed. Body parts were everywhere. There were also
at least 5 injured.
He and several other
witnesses said they watched as the US vehicle was exploded by the IED,
then other soldiers opened up with gunfire, shooting everything in sight.
Hammad Naif Ermil,
driving a large truck, was shot and killed, as were other Iraqis riding
in a bus behind him that was riddled with American bullet holes.
Ali (last name withheld),
an Iraqi Policeman who witnessed the incident, said, I saw 12
dead US soldiers. They put them in black body bags and flew them out
by helicopters.
Ali said, We
tried to help get the man out of the bus, but the Americans wouldnt
let us. He died because they wouldnt let us get him out.
A man who also lives
near the scene of the incident, Abdul Ahkman, said, I saw 12 US
soldiers killed and flown away by their helicopters. We want the Americans
to leave. They said they would bring us freedom, but they have only
brought us death and suffering. We will kill them all if they stay here.
Meanwhile,
last weekend Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told AP News, "We believe
we've got sufficient capability to maintain a reasonable security level
in the country."
We left the scene
after watching young Iraqi boys holding bloody bandages and IV bags
from US medics having done emergency triage on their wounded comrades.
One young boy proudly displayed his US Army watch from a dead US soldier.
The crater from
the IED blast was several feet deep, in the median between the lanes
of the highway.
We came upon the
funeral procession for the truck driver who had been killed, his coffin
draped in an Iraqi flag carried somberly by many men, crying as they
carried it to the mosque, then up a small hill to the village cemetery.
One man pulls me
aside from the procession and says, The Americans are treating
us like animals. They are raiding our homes each day. They are stealing
our money. At least one man from every home here has been detained.
Saddam destroyed us, but the Americans are destroying everything
we have.
Another man tells
me, We want freedom. We need jobs. I am a teacher, but I havent
worked since the invasion. They promised us freedom, but they are only
giving us prison, killing, and bad treatment.
Yet another angered
man says, The US says they came for weapons of mass destruction
and Saddam. They have found no WMDs, they have Saddam, and we
still suffer. We will fight against them all the way now. They have
come because of money. They are insulting all of us. Iraqi people have
the right to resist the Americans because they are invaders. When they
are attacked, why do they always kill others who are not involved?
A few of the men
tell me that Khaldiya now has one hour of electricity per day, and a
7pm curfew.
Haji, angrily tells
me, I expected the Americans to be better than this. If they are
honest, they should pull out now. They have told us over loudspeakers
to stay in our homes after this incident, and have warned us not to
come out after 7pm. Who can live like this?
After the burial
of the body, we solemnly carry on to the Ramadi Hospital.
Dr. Rayid Al-Ani,
the Assistant Director of the Ramadi Hospital where the Iraqi casualties
were taken, stated that three Iraqi civilians bodies were brought to
the morgue at the hospital, and five wounded Iraqi civilians.
Dr. Al-Ani said,
Of the five wounded Iraqis brought here, three have died. One
is now in the operating room, and the fifth man is upstairs suffering
from three gun shots by the Americans.
Mohammed Hammad,
36 years-old, is recovering in the hospital with gun shots in his face,
chest, and right leg. He said, I was riding in a taxi going from
Ramadi to Khaldiya when a US patrol was hit by a roadside bomb. Then
the soldiers just started shooting everywhere.
I ask him if hell
try to get compensation from the Americans and he says, I dont
know, but I dont think they will give any compensation to me.
They arent giving it to anyone around here.
The driver of his
taxi was killed by American gunfire, according to Mohammed Hammad.
I walk down the
hall after talking with Mohammed, and meet a boy, Yas Hammad, 14 years
old, who is recovering from shrapnel wounds in his arm, chest and foot.
US soldiers had raided his parents home, and one of them left a grenade.
The next day Yas Hammad picked it up and it exploded.
Dr. Al-Ani tells
me there is a Sheikh upstairs who has been beaten by the Americans.
He takes us upstairs to talk with him. On the way he says that since
his hospital is the highest point in Ramadi, US soldiers have been occupying
the roof. He doesnt mind this, but he does mind that they have
been shooting bottles for target practice, and this upsets his cardio
patients and the elderly in his care.
Sheikh Turlki Muslu
lays in his bed, nursing his wounds from being beaten on the head, chest,
shoulders and legs. This on top of also suffering from diabetes. He
sits up with a groan of pain to talk with us, Two weeks ago the
Americans came and asked me to give them names of resistance fighters.
I dont know any resistance fighters. We were always against Saddam
here. They roughed me up some, then said they would come back in a week
and Id better have some names. They came back a week ago, sent
my family outside and locked the door. I told them I dont know
any names, so they tied my hands, put a bag over my head, and took me
away in an armored vehicle. They beat me on my head, neck, shoulders
and chest. They kicked my legs. Then they took me home and told me they
could kill me. I told them I just dont know anyone they are looking
for, because Im not in the resistance. They said they would come
back.
The Sheikh has
been in the hospital since then, hoping the Americans wont visit
him again. They insist we join him and several other Sheikhs and
his friends for lunch. We sit in the hospital room munching on chicken,
rice and salads, all of them expressing their frustration and concern.
The Sheikh is in charge of 30,000 men. One of his friends says, What
are the Americans thinking? Do they think we will not fight them
now? If this happens again, how will the Sheikh keep his men from fighting?
What will his 30,000 people do when they find out he has been beaten?
The Sheikh says
he is angry with the press who he has spoken with, as they have not
told the truth about how his people are suffering, beaten, humiliated
and killed by the Americans.
The Assistant Manager
of the hospital expresses this frustration as well.
We are taken to
the floor beneath the Sheikhs to visit his cousin, Muhammad Nassir
Ali, who is a Sheikh, also in charge of 30,000 people. His story is
almost exactly the same as that of his cousin-detained, beaten, threatened,
and now seeking refuge in the hospital from the Americans. He
lies in bed in pain, one of his feet broken, bruises on his body.
Sheikh Nassir Ali
says, The Americans should not be using force on us. We would
welcome them if they treated us with respect and dignity. Instead, they
are humiliating and infuriating us. Why are they taking our freedom?
My people are ready to do what they need to do here.
He receives over
100 visitors a day from men with solemn looks on their faces. When we
are there over 20 men wait for us to finish so they can check on their
Sheikh.
We walk down the
hall and Dr. Rhami Barki, one of the doctors from the hospital tells
me, The Americans sealed of Khaldiya yesterday. They wouldnt
let anyone leave their house. What about emergency cases? What about
heart attacks? Is it acceptable for Americans to keep people in their
homes with no medical care? The entire city was sealed from 5pm yesterday
until this morning! This is a very big problem. Where are our human
rights?
Meanwhile the violence
across Baghdad continues. A suicide bomber using an ambulance detonated
near a hotel frequented by westerners, most likely contractors, just
down the road from where I stay. The usual rattling windows woke me
at around 6am as the huge blast rocked central Baghdad.
Yet the propaganda
fest by the US military continues
"What we've
done in the last 60 days is really taken them down," a senior military
official said, speaking of the insurgency to the Washington Post on
Jan. 23. "We've dismantled the Baghdad piece. We've dismantled
the Mosul piece. I'm not saying we've taken down the Fallujah-Ramadi
piece, but we've hammered it."
AP reported, "The
enemy doesn't have much left," a battalion commander in Tikrit
said this week in assessing the current situation. "They are desperate
and flailing."
Dahr Jamail is an
independent freelance journalist from Anchorage, Alaska. He came to
Iraq to bear witness and report on the effects of the occupation on
the Iraqi people because he feels that the US media has, in large part,
failed to do so.