- (Reuters) -- US troops in the Iraqi town of Samarra have
admitted to perpetrating a bloodbath, with one occupation spokesman confirming
nearly four dozen people were killed.
-
- Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald told journalists on
Sunday that all the 46 were killed when troops fought off multiple attacks
on military convoys.
-
- But local residents said US troops killed innocent bystanders
when they opened fire on anything that moved around midday.
-
- Workers at a nearby pharmaceutical plant said at least
two colleagues were killed and many wounded as they walked out of the factory
gates at the end of their shift, downed by a US tank shooting randomly
in all directions.
-
- At 13:45 (10:45 GMT), just 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, employees said.
-
- One French journalist also reports seeing blood spattered
on the ground and bullet holes in the sentry box to the left of the white
factory gates.
-
- Laying the blame
-
- US-led occupation forces and residents alike spoke of
multiple attacks in the central Iraqi city that was once home to Izzat
Ibrahim al-Duri, Saddam Hussein's deputy and the alleged paymaster of many
attacks against occupation forces.
-
- MacDonald said US troops also destroyed three buildings
used in the attacks and notably fired tank shells against the attackers,
who were allegedly wearing the black uniforms of former government Fidayin
fighters.
-
- Five US troops and a civilian in their convoy were also
wounded, two of them lightly, according to the spokesman for the 4th Infantry
Division which patrols the town regularly.
-
- MacDonald said two convoys were driving into Samarra
when they were attacked.
-
- "The attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades and
automatic weapons at the convoy from rooftops of buildings and from the
alleyways," said MacDonald, adding that mortars and improvised bombs
also were used against the US soldiers.
-
- More wounded
-
- "At each location, soldiers from the 1st Battalion
66th Armour and military police returned fire with small arms, 120mm tank
rounds and 25mm cannon fired from Bradley vehicles," the spokesman
said.
-
- In a third attack, another US military convoy came under
small arms fire attack from four men travelling in a car.
-
- The soldiers returned fire wounding all four and capturing
them, said MacDonald, speaking to journalists at the division's headquarters
in Tikrit.
-
- The US military is using considerably more violent tactics
in its battle against resistance in the past couple of weeks, launching
massive operations both in and around Baghdad and in the 4th Infantry Divisionâs
operational area in north-central Iraq.
- The top coalition commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General
Ricardo Sanchez, had boasted Saturday of a "significant" fall-off
in attacks in the region around Tikrit and Samarra following the launching
of Operation Ivy Cyclone II.
-
- But the end of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which closed
last week, has seen an explosion of violence against the US military and
its allies.
-
- Seven Spanish agents, two Japanese diplomats, one Colombian
and two Korean contractors as well as two US soldiers were killed on Saturday
and Sunday.
-
- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E56B8E35-2484-40C5-935E-B452A2C74769.htm
|
