U.S. soldiers kill young Iraqi girl

[Praxius]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080313/US_soldiers_080313/20080313?hub=World

BAGHDAD -- U.S. soldiers shot and killed a young Iraqi girl after firing a warning shot at a woman who "appeared to be signaling to someone" along a road where several bombs had recently been found, a military official said early Thursday.

The shooting, which took place Wednesday afternoon, happened in the volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad. An exact location was not given in a military statement.

The girl appeared to be "around 10 years old," said Maj. Brad Leighton, a military spokesman.

In its statement, the military said that "coalition forces fired a warning shot into a berm near a suspicious woman who appeared to be signaling to someone while the soldiers were in the area. A young girl was found behind the berm suffering from a gunshot wound."

Leighton, however, said preliminary reports indicated that soldiers didn't believe the woman posed a threat of being a suicide bomber, but rather "they were afraid she was signaling to someone that the convoy was going by."

In other violence on Thursday, five members of an Awakening Council were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked two separate checkpoints near Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. Nine others were wounded in the attacks.

Awakening Councils are made up of mostly Sunni fighters who have accepted U.S. backing to switch allegiances and fight al Qaeda in Iraq.

The violence comes amid a sharp increase in attacks resulting in the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, where 12 Americans have been killed in the past four days. Most recently three soldiers died on Wednesday in a rocket attack on Combat Outpost Adder near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The attack came a day after an American soldier died when a roadside bomb hit his patrol near Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad.

Eight soldiers were killed in a pair of bomb attacks on Monday, the heaviest single day of U.S. casualties since September.

Three of those soldiers died in a roadside bombing in Diyala, a violent province where al Qaeda in Iraq has been active. The five others were killed when approached by a suicide bomber while on foot patrol in central Baghdad.

The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant group, issued a statement Wednesday claiming responsibility for the soldiers' deaths.

With the overall U.S. military death toll in Iraq nearing 4,000, Wednesday's killings mark a significant rise in deadly attacks against Americans.

At least 3,987 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes eight military civilians.

 

[#juan]

At least 3,987 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes eight military civilians.

This is the first time I've heard of a military civilian...:smile::roll:

 

[Praxius]

I think they ment their Mercs.... or contracted security agencies if you want to get PC about it

 

[#juan]

I think they ment their Mercs.... or contracted security agencies if you want to get PC about it

Sorry. Far be it from me to be PC. I kind of figured you didn't write that little line.

As far as the shooting is concerned, I understand the quick trigger better now than I did when this war first started. Most of Canada's casualties/deaths have come from roadside bombs so shooting first is maybe a reasonable option.

 

[Praxius]

Sorry. Far be it from me to be PC. I kind of figured you didn't write that little line.

hey, I'm politically correct... well, as much as I feel I should be.

As far as the shooting is concerned, I understand the quick trigger better now than I did when this war first started. Most of Canada's casualties/deaths have come from roadside bombs so shooting first is maybe a reasonable option.

Sorry, I'd rather take a bomb to the skull then to shoot someone innocent and having to live with that for the rest of my life, but to each their own.

Must kinda suck to be in the kid's situation. Probably was hiding behind the thing trying to avoid getting shot, and get's shot regardless.... what are the odds?

 

[karrie]

Sorry, I'd rather take a bomb to the skull then to shoot someone innocent and having to live with that for the rest of my life, but to each their own.

Well, it's not like they knew it was an either or situation. They didn't shoot her on purpose, there wasn't a decision made 'that little girl or me'.

 

[lone wolf]

'fraid the day of an honourable war, where civilians stay out of the fight and both sides wear team uniforms, is gone. This ain't grand dad's war. There are no non-combatants any more. Those IEDs are just as likely to take out an Iraqi or Afghani kid as they are a uniformed soldier. When your life is on the line, if it moves, you kill it or it will kill you. That's why the worst of wounds don't come from bullets.

Woof!

 

[#juan]

hey, I'm politically correct... well, as much as I feel I should be.



Sorry, I'd rather take a bomb to the skull then to shoot someone innocent and having to live with that for the rest of my life, but to each their own.

Must kinda suck to be in the kid's situation. Probably was hiding behind the thing trying to avoid getting shot, and get's shot regardless.... what are the odds?

I also think you get pretty close to the guys you are fighting with and a possible suicide bomber is not something you want to take a chance on. I would far rather that our guys had shot all the bombers rather than lose good young men to that insanity. I know most of the bombs have been roadside devices but a number of them have been suicide bombers. I hope they are trained by now to shoot before allowing a stranger to approach the company.

 

[tracy]

I understand the kill or be killed idea, but that obviously wasn't the case here. This little girl couldn't kill any of them. They didn't save anyone by shooting her. It was just a sad accident with no moral lesson to be learned other than sometimes bad things happen in war zones.

 

[givpeaceachance]

OR maybe that we need to really think about why little girls and courageous people are getting shot and/or killed. In the name of what?

I'm sure alot of people think that this WHOLE thing is a sad accident with no moral lesson to be learned.

It's hard to be a soldier in this kind of a war where the legitimacy of it is completely questionable. Where the #1 question they keep asking themselves after the 3rd or 4rth tour is ' What are we still doing here? '

 

[#juan]

We have to remember that these are a bunch of young guys who probably remember the last two bomb attacks that killed and maimed some of them. I imagine it is not a sight you will soon forget. There have been women with bombs strapped to them. The roadside bombs might have the tiniest bit of a copper antenna sticking out of the dirt to get the signal from somebody with a remote control. It's a terrible situation to be in........No doubt.

 

[Scott Free]

My daughter is ten years old.

The people and the nation that did this are complete and total scum. They moved in illegally and without provocation, destroyed the cradle of civilization, displaced 2 million people and murdered 1 million more - no good could ever come of this action - so apologists save your breath; your miserable excuses are devoid of all humanity. I don't care what colour a child is; murdering one is beyond all outrage. The history books shall be most unkind to these arrogant obese savages.

Sorry for the rant but I am utterly sick of this filthy scum that covers the earth. We could have world peace tomorrow except for one failed state that wants us all to be their chattel.

Greatest country on earth! Ha! It's hard to think of one worse!