Doug Lorimer
On May 18, at least 40 Iraqis, most of them women and children, were massacred in a US military assault on a wedding party in the village of Mogr el Deeb, near the border with Syria. Residents said 31 members of a single family were slaughtered. Another five people are in critical condition.
US occupation authorities claimed their forces had attacked a "a suspected safe house for foreign fighters". However, survivors of the attack rejected this. "They're lying", said Madhi Nawaf, whose daughter was killed. "They have to show us evidence that we fired a shot or were hiding foreign fighters. Where are the foreign fighters then? Why kill and dismember innocent children?"
Associated Press reported that Nawaf's brother, Taleb, lost his wife, Amal, and two daughters, two-year-old Anoud and two-year-old Kholood. His wife's body was found clutching the two children, survivors said.
All the men in the village interviewed by Associated Press insisted there were no foreign Arab fighters in Mogr el Deeb.
According to the survivors, US helicopters dropped two bombs on the village and artillery shells rained down on the village for six hours. At dawn, 40 US soldiers searched a house where the women had stayed and a second, vacant house. Soon after, the two houses were blown up.
"They asked us no questions", said Adel Awdeh.
Some of the men tried to approach the Americans but were driven back by gunshots, the survivors said. The troops took money and jewellery the dead women had bought for the party, survivors said. The US attack had the hallmarks of a similar massacres in Afghanistan, notably one in June 2002 in which a US warplane massacred 48 Afghan civilians at a wedding party, and wounded more than 100.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 26, 2004.
Visit the