AFTER SAMARRA
Another US Massacre In The 'Sunni Triangle'
17 December 2003
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'54 AMBUSHERS KILLED' CLAIMS US
First reports were unequivocal: 'US forces killed 46 Iraqis
after a military convoy was ambushed in the town of Samarra
last night in the most deadly firefight in the seven months
since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations
in Iraq.' (Times, 1 Dec., p. 1)
'Many of the dead Iraqis wore uniforms
of the Fedayeen, a militia loyal to Saddam Hussein, Lieutenant
Colonel William MacDonald of the 4th Infantry Division said.'
(Guardian, 1 Dec., p. 1) 'US officers involved in the battle
described the ambushes as well coordinated by up to 80 guerrillas.'
(Guardian, 2 Dec., p. 2)
'The convoys were carrying new Iraqi banknotes
into the town to exchange for Saddam-era cash. American military
spokesmen said they knew of no Iraqi civilian casualties, even
though they destroyed three buildings with tank rounds.' (Telegraph,
1 Dec., p.1)
US officials later said they had killed
54 'enemy personnel' - 22 were said to have been wounded, one
captured. (FT, 2 Dec., p.11) 'Major Gordon Tate, a spokesman
at the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit,
insisted the US military was “confident” about its
assessment of the “battle damage”. “Soldiers
and commanders on the site counted [the dead],” he told
The Independent.' (Independent, 2 Dec., p. 2)
IRAQIS DISAGREE: EIGHT CIVILIANS DEAD
'US and Iraqi reports differed sharply. Mr Mohammed, the police
chief, said [on the first day] that only six Iraqis had been
killed in the clashes, along with one Iranian pilgrim. He accused
US troops of “firing randomly” on Iraqi civilians
after they had been ambushed “by one or two people”.
He said 54 Iraqis had been injured.' (FT, 2 Dec., p.11)
' “We think that at most eight or
nine people died,” said Khaled Mohammed, an admissions
clerk in the hospital's emergency ward. Ahmed al-Samarai, a
local police officer, said the day after the shooting, “Not
more than 10 people were killed and some of those were not involved
in the fighting.” ' (Guardian, 2 Dec., p.2)
British journalist Phil Reeves reports
that 'Repeated visits to the scene, interviews with Iraqi civilians
and US soldiers, and close inspection of the battle damage by
scores of correspondents have failed to eliminate several troubling
and crucial questions. Where are the bodies? Did they exist?
Or was this death toll - as some suspect - a fabrication
which was intended to generate positive headlines for the US,
after a disastrous weekend in which guerrilla attacks killed
14 foreigners?' “This is a very tribal society, in which
everyone in the area knows everyone else. It [54 deaths] just
did not happen,” said Samarra resident Yahir Mahmoud al-Abassi.
(Independent, 6 Dec., p.1)
'Scepticism about the US's version of the
death toll has been expressed within upper echelons of the occupation
authorities. A US combat leader who was involved in the battle
has also denounced the military's account of the battle.' (Independent,
4 Dec., p.2)
'The US military believes the bodies of
the 54 dead were swiftly collected and buried. But [it] is questionable
whether the guerrillas' families or surviving combatants would
have risked recovering known members of the resistance in a
town which is under constant US surveillance: the Americans
have a base' there. (Independent, 4 Dec., p.2)
30 NOVEMBER: THE REEVES CHRONOLOGY
Two US convoys entered Samarra at 11am. There were 100 troops
from 4th Infantry Division in six tanks, four Bradley fighting
vehicles and four Humvees, carrying new Iraqi dinars for the
al-Rashid bank in Babel Kabla St, and another branch opposite
the al-Risala mosque in Bank St. With them were two squads of
military police, and four squads of infantry.
As the two convoys entered from east and
west, roadside bombs detonated on both roads, injuring three
soldiers. As the troops Prepared to retreat from their respective
banks, about 1.30pm, ambushes were sprung on both convoys, using
small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
According to Phil Reeves' account, a mortar
shell fired by the guerrillas landed near the front gate of
the Samarra Drugs factory, killing Amira Mahdi Saleh, a worker
in her mid-thirties. Later, another mortar round wounded Hossam
Shakir al-Douri, 25, who later died. A clerk working in the
front office of the factory witnessed bullets from passing US
armoured vehicles smashing into the reception area: Phil Reeves
reported, 'It [the recepton area] bears the marks of at least
five machine-gun bullets.'
Outside a small mosque in front of the
local hospital, Abdullah Amin al-Kurdi was 'mown down', and
another man, Raid Ali Fadhel, was also killed. A few yards from
the Shia mosque, a firefight took the life of Fatah Allah Hijazi,
a 71-year-old Iranian pilgrim.
As 'running battles' spread through the
town, some of the shooting was 'random', according to Phil Reeves.
(Independent, 6 Dec., p.1) According to Saadun Isawi, a police
official at Samarra hospital, the dead included 'a 10-year-old
boy'. (FT, 4 Dec., p.15)
RANDOM FIRE
Captain Andy Deponai, one of the US commanders on the ground,
'said that his men had targeted assailants shooting at them,
and denied they had fired at random.' (Times, 2 Dec., p.17)
'Jihad Hussein, a student, said he had seen passersby running
for cover. “They were spraying the whole street,”
he said. “I don't know who fired the first shot, the Americans
or the Fedayeen, but I saw at least one young woman hit by a
bullet as she lay on the ground.” ' (Guardian, 2 Dec.,
p.2)
'On the main street outside the Rasheed
Bank, where the main attack was launched, a five-storey apartment
block was riddled with bullet holes from American guns, while
several cars lay crushed by the retreating tanks... Some [young
men] accused the US forces of firing on vehicles ferrying the
wounded to receive treatment.' 'Imam Jumaa Mozher, 25, showed
large-calibre shells he said had been fired at the building
from an Apache helicopter while the [Ali al-Hadi] mosque was
crowded for evening prayers, wounding several worshippers.'
(Times, 2 Dec., p.17)
'The attacks had left an ugly mood in the
town, where locals were unanimous in condemning indiscriminate
firing by the Americans.' (Telegraph, 2 Dec., p.14) 'Iraqi
residents said that when the shooting started outside the banks,
the Americans fired randomly at houses, mosques and even
a kindergarten, prompting local people to reach for their guns
and join the running street battle.' (Times, 2 Dec., p.17)
FEDAYEEN?
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of US-UK operations,
'said several of the dead had been wearing uniforms “consistent
with” those of Fedayeen Saddam commandos, which included
a black face scarf and a shoulder patch.' (FT, 2 Dec., p.11)
Phil Reeves reported that the clothing of the dead 'sounded
like the apparel of many young Arabs.' (Independent, 2 Dec.,
p.2)
REVENGE: 'THA'AR'
Dr Mohamed Badie, vice-president of Tikrit University, said,
'All the people here are fed up and angry... There is something
here that is hidden from the American public. They call it “Tha'ar”
- revenge. That means that if anyone kills your friend,
or your brother, you have to avenge it by killing an American
soldier.' (Independent, 2 Dec., p.2) This may be the major
motivation for the attacks on US forces. (See Chapter XXII
Regime Unchanged and JNV
Briefing 47: After Falluja.)
DRESS REHEARSAL: BALAD
On 13 June, US forces claimed to have killed 27 Iraqi rebels
in an ambush that went wrong outside the city of Balad. A few
days later, it was quietly reported, 'It now seems that only
seven men died, five of them apparently innocent farmers.' (Guardian,
16 June 2003, p.10)
IMPUNITY
'The US military has paid out $1.5m (£907,000) to Iraqi
civilians in response to a wave of negligence and wrongful death
claims filed against American soldiers, the Guardian has learned.
Families have come forward with accounts of how American soldiers
shot dead or seriously wounded unarmed Iraqi civilians with
no apparent cause. In many cases their stories are confirmed
by Iraqi police investigations. No American soldier has been
prosecuted for illegally killing an Iraqi civilian and commanders
refuse even to count the number of civilians
killed or injured by their soldiers.' (Guardian, 26 Nov.
2003)
'Iraqi courts, because of an order issued
by the US-led authority in Baghdad in June, are forbidden
from hearing cases against American soldiers or any other foreign
troops or foreign officials in Iraq. Human Rights Watch said,
“The lack of timely and thorough investigations into many
questionable incidents has created an atmosphere of impunity,
in which many soldiers feel they can pull the trigger without
coming under review.”... In some cases relatives have
spoken of their plans to join the growing guerrilla resistance
movement to avenge the deaths of their relatives.' (Guardian,
26 Nov. 2003)
RAMADI, SAMARRA, FALLUJA
'Dramatic video footage from the city of Ramadi 75 miles west
of Baghdad showed unarmed supporters of Saddam Hussein being
gunned down in semi-darkness as they fled from American troops...
An American commander in Samarra later said 11 “insurgents”
had been killed... Fallujah [was] the scene of the other mass
killing, of five Iraqi men, pro-Saddam demonstrators.' (Robert
Fisk, Independent, 17 Dec., p.1)
