Bye bye American precision bombing?

[Klaus]

Iraqi children maimed at play

By Nayla Razzouk
Agence France-Presse


HILLA ? Five-year-old Nader should not have been out playing last night. He now sits on a hospital bed with a bandage covering one eye after stepping on an explosive south of Baghdad.

The boy rests his head on his elbow on the bed's metallic bar while looking out from the window with his left eye.

Nader's mother suddenly jumps to her feet to promptly remove from his mouth candy offered by sympathetic journalists.

?Don't give him anything to eat please. He has to undergo an operation on his right eye at any moment now,? she says, as she pulls back her hair under a long black veil.

?He may not be able to see again with his right eye.?

Nader and his mother had escaped US-British bombing overnight Monday on regions around the city of Hilla, 80 kilometres south of Baghdad, which killed dozens of civilians, most of them women and children, and wounded about 400 others, Iraqi hospital officials and witnesses said. But Nader went out to play the next day. He stepped on one of the dozens of bomblets equipped with small parachutes survivors and Iraqi authorities said were peppered over a large area by cluster bombs.

But a senior US commander in the war on Iraq said Wednesday there were so far ?no indications? that US forces used cluster munitions in an attack on the Hilla region.

?Cluster munitions are available and they're used by tactical commanders to create a tactical effect on the battlefield,? Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a press briefing at US Central Command's base in Qatar.

He stressed that when they are used, ?the conditions for people, the conditions for unintended consequences are taken into account.?

Iraqi soldiers were seen collecting debris, which survivors said coalition warplanes had dropped over the neighbourhood. The soldiers poured fuel on the ordnance and set it on fire to destroy it.

However, the Iraqi army troops ? facing fast advancing US-British troops ? could not clear the whole area.

Nader's mother then pointed at the other beds in the hospital room where six other children were lying, with blood-stained bandages and severe bruises on their bodies.

?What did these little children do to the Americans? What did they do to (US President George W.) Bush,? she said.

?May God avenge these children by sending Bush a cluster bomb of meningitis,? she shouted while raising open palms into the air.

Two-year-old Hussein Ali Abed has a frightening fixed gaze.

?Since the bombing, he has been like this,? explained his father.

?His mother, my wife, died in the bombing when several bomblets landed on us during the night. So I really do not know what to do to get him out of the shock,? he added.

Human rights groups from around the world have long protested the use of cluster bombs, which they say cause undue risks to civilians.

The US Central Command said Wednesday that US forces had Tuesday evening dropped on Iraq ?for the first time in combat history? a new version of a cluster bomb that adapts to wind and weather to hit targets more accurately.

New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a report days ahead of the start of the US-led War on Iraq, said cluster munitions dropped in the 1991 Gulf War were to blame for the deaths or injuries of more than 4,000 civilians after the fighting ended.

Hussein Qazem Ghazay, a doctor at the Hilla hospital, said that ?all the injuries were either from cluster bombings or from bomblets that exploded afterward when people stepped on them or children picked them up by mistake.?

At the end of the hospital room an elderly woman with bandages on her head and arms lies without moving, gazing at a two-year-old screaming boy with severe bruises over all his naked body on the bed next to her.

?Hamida Abed lost 15 members of her family when these bomblets landed on her home. She lost all her children, their spouses and her grandchildren,? said a nurse, before whispering: ?She does not know this, yet.?

Thursday, April 3, 2003

US Bombs Hit Iraqi Hospital, Casualties -Witnesses

Wed April 2, 2003 09:47 AM ET
By Samia Nakhoul

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. missiles hit a Red Crescent maternity hospital in Baghdad and other civilian buildings on Wednesday, killing several people and wounding at least 25, hospital sources and witnesses said.

The attacks, which occurred at 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), surprised motorists who had ventured out during a lull in the bombing. This correspondent saw at least five burned-out and twisted cars halted in the middle of the road. Witnesses said the drivers burned to death inside.

Residents said U.S. planes raided the Mansour area, firing at least three missiles. They hit the hospital, the nearby Baghdad trade center complex and buildings housing the Pharmacist and Teachers' Unions.

The blast caused extensive damage in the hospital.
full article at:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....CRBAEZSFEY?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2494845

 

[verte76]

Damn, this is really sad. I hate it that innocent people are losing loved ones because their ruler is a .

 

[what a bomb!]

yes it is sad, that innocent kids get killed like this, as sad as the 5,000 innocent kurdish men,women and children that were gassed by Saddam, at least we are not intentionally targetting innocent people.

 

[womanfish]

From the information that I have seen on on major networks, BBC, CBC (Canadian), and PBS, the articles above are not accurate. There are too many discrepencies to take my time on right now. But just looking at the sources may give you an indication......

 

[Klaus]

With this mail i didn't want to show that Bush might be as evil as Saddam, this is just about innocent people who are killed because they live at the place where they live and because they have bad luck

You can't blame Saddam for US cluster bombs, that's the same sick logic like "I hate it that innocent people are losing loved ones because their ruler is a ...." if you talk about 9/11 attacks

It's allways the person's guilt who decided to do the attack, also there might be understandable reasons (Israel/Palestine) or there are definete reasons (Iraq war). It's not like in mathematics - you can add and substract guilt.

Klaus

 

[V Nura]

With this mail i didn't want to show that Bush might be as evil as Saddam, this is just about innocent people who are killed because they live at the place where they live and because they have bad luck

You can't blame Saddam for US cluster bombs, that's the same sick logic like "I hate it that innocent people are losing loved ones because their ruler is a ...." if you talk about 9/11 attacks

It's allways the person's guilt who decided to do the attack, also there might be understandable reasons (Israel/Palestine) or there are definete reasons (Iraq war). It's not like in mathematics - you can add and substract guilt.

Klaus

I know klaus it's sad....but..let's just hope that the iraqi people have a long and bright future ...perhaps not int eh days ahead..but in the years to come.

 

[Klaus]

womanfish:

from an ai source:

Iraq: Use of cluster bombs -- Civilians pay the price

AI Index: MDE 14/065/2003 (Public)

Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the high toll of civilian casualties and the use of cluster bombs in US military attacks in heavily populated areas.

On 1 April, at least 33 civilians including many children were reportedly killed and around 300 injured in US attacks on the town of al-Hilla. Amnesty International is particularly disturbed by reports that cluster bombs were used in the attacks and may have been responsible for some of the civilian deaths.

"The use of cluster bombs in an attack on a civilian area of al-Hilla constitutes an indiscriminate attack and a grave violation of international humanitarian law," Amnesty International emphasized today.

"If the US is serious about protecting civilians, it must publicly commit to a moratorium on the use of cluster weapons. Using cluster munitions will lead to indiscriminate killing and injuring of civilians," the organization added.

According to reports, the type of cluster bomblets used in al-Hilla was BLU97 A/B. Each cannister contains 202 small bomblets -- BLU97 -- the size of a soft drink can. These cluster bomblets scatter over a large area approximately the size of two football fields. At least 5% of these 'dud' bomblets do not explode upon impact, turning them into de facto anti-personnel mines because they continue to pose a threat to people, including civilians, who come into contact with them.

That might not be the above accident, but they say cluster bombing has begun.

Klaus

 

[verte76]

Oops, I screwed up. They should not be using cluster bombs. There is no excuse for using cluster bombs, since it's a violation of international law. I didn't mean to tie this in with 9/11, anyway. There's no known link between the Iraqi regime and 9/11. Saddam was always too secular for the patience of the militant terrorist outfits. Yes, the guy is a but he didn't authorize the use of cluster bombs. Whoever did is a too. It killed innocent people.

 

[Klaus]

verte76:

I'm sorry i didn't want to sound like there was a link or like you made a link inbetween these 2 cases - i just wanted to present another example of "it's the guilt of.."

Klaus

 

[verte76]

verte76:

I'm sorry i didn't want to sound like there was a link or like you made a link inbetween these 2 cases - i just wanted to present another example of "it's the guilt of.."

Klaus

That's OK. I think I was a bit careless in the cluster bomb department. I don't care who's doing what cluster bombs are *not* cool. They're lethal and cause casualties that otherwise wouldn't happen. Disgusting.

 

[Rono]

I did read in a dutch newspaper that smart bombs got numbers for precision. Those sattelite guided bombs has a C13 number. This means that the averge distance to a target must be 13 meters.