Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Il New York Times ricostruisce la bufala del "bambino-bambini" uccisi ieri a Baghdad

Attack in Iraq: Many Versions, Obscure Truth
By IAN FISHER
Published: April 26, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 25 — A roadside bomb killed a young American soldier on
Sunday morning inside this city, the kind of attack so common in this war
that it no longer makes headlines.
After he was evacuated, his Humvee was set on fire. Children rushed out of
school to celebrate the attack — a reaction that until the most recent spike
of rage and violence here was almost unheard of inside the capital. American
soldiers began shooting at rooftop snipers. At least one Iraqi, a teenager
whose name was given by neighbors as Hassan Fallah, was killed in the
cross-fire.
Those details, at least, seem certain enough.
"Take pictures and show this to the world!" one angry Iraqi driver, passing
by the Humvee after it had been reduced to blistered paint and cold ash,
yelled to a reporter.
Presumably the Iraqi meant, "Tell the truth." But determining the truth of
what happened in incidents like this one is becoming increasingly difficult.
Reality, at this pivotal moment for the Americans in Iraq, is a kaleidoscope
of versions.
Iraqi witnesses said not one child, but four, possibly five, had been
killed. The American military had no count. But according to the military,
gunmen fired on the soldiers from rooftops, provoking return fire. No Iraqi
witness mentioned that.
Several Iraqis there did say the children had been incited to jump around
the burning Humvee by a cameraman for Al Arabiya, an Arab news channel,
which American officials say is guilty of stoking a much broader
anti-Americanism among viewers around the Arab world. The station denies
that its cameraman did anything but film.
In recent weeks, it has become harder for Western reporters to sift through
conflicting accounts of incidents like this one. They venture outside only
briefly. Many are afraid, mostly ensconced in hotels and houses protected by
huge concrete blast walls, because of the recent wave of kidnappings and
killings of foreigners. (And this reporter, who arrived at the attack scene
about six hours afterward, stayed only about 45 minutes — far less than he
might have several months ago.)
Here are several accounts of the attack, relatively small in itself, as the
American military braces for possibly large-scale fighting — and more
civilian casualties — in the standoff cities of Najaf and Falluja. Still,
the contradictory versions of what happened seem revealing about the
thickening fog of this war.
Qusay Faisal, 19, who said he had been standing across the Canal highway in
the Amana neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad, said he had seen four
American Humvees drive by on the other side. He said a friend, Khalid, about
30, had run up to them and fired a rocket-propelled grenade that hit one
Humvee.
Soldiers, he said, took wounded comrades from the crippled Humvee, while
some soldiers from the other Humvees dismounted and began firing. Khalid,
escaping across a bridge over a sewage canal, was struck, collapsed in the
dirt of the median and died, Mr. Faisal said, pointing to dusty spatters of
blood. He said only one other youth, Hussein, had been shot by the American
bullets, wounded in the leg. Mr. Faisal said he saw no one else dead.
"The Americans did a good thing when they captured Saddam Hussein," Mr.
Faisal said. "But why do they kill children? Before, I liked the Americans,
but now I hate them."
Mr. Faisal also admitted that he had been drinking when the attack happened.
No one else saw what he said he had seen.
Across the highway, Jabal Shanoon Hussain, 42, a sergeant at the fire
station there, said he had heard a huge explosion several hundred yards away
and had seen the four Humvees stopping. He said he had seen what looked like
wounded soldiers being transferred to other Humvees, and the vehicles drove
away.
Then youths from the Sakir Quraish middle school nearby streamed toward the
Humvees, celebrating the attack, Mr. Hussain said, and about 10 minutes
later several other American Humvees arrived — and the soldiers inside
opened fire.
He said an American bullet had struck the windshield of a new fire truck,
presumably bought with American aid, and at least six bullets raked the
station's second floor.
Mr. Hussain said he had seen his young neighbor, Hassan, dead. He saw only
one other child, about 4 years old, wounded. He did not blame the Americans,
but the children.
"I believe if they didn't burn the Humvee, the Americans wouldn't have
fired," he said.
Behind the firehouse, workers erected a steel-framed tent, used in the Arab
world for funerals. Two neighbors corroborated Mr. Hussain's account that
the stricken Humvee seemed to have been hit by a bomb several hundred yards
from where it had stopped. They also agreed that a second group of Americans
began shooting after arriving and finding the burning Humvee — and did so
wildly.
"When they shoot, they don't shoot at targets," said one neighbor, Ali
Hussein, 45. "They just shot randomly."
The neighbors said they had heard that four children had been killed but had
not seen the bodies themselves.
Muhammad Yacut, 40, who has two children in the middle school, said he
arrived just after the explosion to see scores of youths near the bridge and
a cameraman from what he believed to be Al Arabiya urging them to jump in
celebration.
"The cameraman said, `Come over the bridge and celebrate, and I will film
you,' " Mr. Yacut said in an account supported by others in the
neighborhood. He said a taxi driver passing by had poured gasoline over the
Humvee and set it ablaze. Then a second group of Americans arrived, he said,
and opened fire. He said he had seen four or five children lying still — he
presumed they were dead.
Later, at Sadr General Hospital, Dr. Muaed Aad, a surgeon, said the hospital
had received 14 wounded but no fatalities. (It is also true that Iraqis, who
observe the Muslim tradition of immediate burial, often do not take the dead
to hospitals.)
Inside the Green Zone, the heavily fortified command center for the American
occupation, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman, said one
soldier had been killed and three wounded Sunday by a roadside bomb. When
soldiers returned to their Humvees after evacuating wounded soldiers, they
found children rifling through the vehicles, and gunmen began firing from
rooftops. General Kimmitt suggested that American soldiers, who returned
fire, had not caused any injuries or deaths.
"We strongly suspect the shooting from the rooftops was responsible for any
casualties," General Kimmitt told reporters, adding that the incident was
under investigation.
Reached by telephone, Hisham Badawi, Baghdad bureau chief for Al Arabiya,
said a freelance cameraman who often worked for the network was at the scene
and had been arrested by American troops. He said the cameraman, Aqeel
Muhammad, had not encouraged the children to celebrate the hit Humvee.
"There is no proof, or any pictures or any footage showing that our
cameraman did this," he said. "Kids normally gather at events like this and
start cheering."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/26/international/middleeast/26ATTA.html

Attack in Iraq: Many Versions, Obscure Truth
* (It is also true that Iraqis, who observe the Muslim tradition of
immediate burial, often do not take the dead to hospitals.*
--
Leftorium, Il blog Riformista - 
http://clik.to/leftorium
Sinistra liberal - 
http://sinistraliberal.too.it

 immediate burial, often do not take the dead to hospitals.*
Il giornalista ha giustamente ricordato la tradizione islamica per quanto
riguarda la sepoltura dei morti.
Questo non cambia il fatto che non ci sia nessuna conferma attendibile sul
numero dei bambini morti e su chi li abbia colpiti.

numero dei bambini morti e su chi li abbia colpiti.
Aspetteranno Colin Powell che porta i 4 bambini in provetta.


 numero dei bambini morti e su chi li abbia colpiti.
e quale sarebbe la conferma attendibile?