49 Iraqis Killed in US Forces Attacks on Sadr City, Including Many Women and Children

U.S. army says 49 killed in Sadr City

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq Sunday , 21 /10 /2007 Time 5:18:28

Baghdad, Oct 21, (VOI) –

Nearly forty-nine (Iraqis) were killed in an operation carried out by the U.S. forces in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, during the early hours of Sunday, the U.S. army said.

The U.S. army previously said the operation, which resulted in the death of six people, was meant to be against persons involved in the kidnapping of U.S. soldiers last year and this year.

The U.S. army said its troops killed six militiamen during a raid on the Sadr City slum on Sunday morning, while Iraqi police sources put the casualties at 13 dead and 52 wounded.

"In an intelligence driven operation this morning in Sadr City, Coalition forces were engaged in a firefight that resulted in the killing of an estimated six (Iraqis)," the U.S. army said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The army statement claimed that no civilians or Coalition forces were killed or injured in the operation, but Iraqi police sources said 13 people were killed and over 52 wounded in the U.S. raid. "An armed raid carried out early today by U.S. forces backed by aerial support left 13 dead and 52 wounded," a police source, who requested anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The source added that women and children were among the casualties. A source from Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City told VOI "the hospital admitted a number of wounded persons including women and children and also received some bodies." Meanwhile, a media source from cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Baghdad said that U.S. forces raided many sections of Sadr City on early Sunday, leaving many casualties among the civilians. "U.S. forces, backed by copters, raided Sadr City in the early hours of Sunday, leaving many civilian casualties and damaging several commercial shops and houses," the source said. The Sadr's office source also said that the raid left eight civilian’s cars damaged. SK/SR

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AP Headline: US: Raid of Baghdad's Sadr City Kills 49

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN Associated Press Writer

Oct 21, 2007, 8:45 AM EDT

BAGHDAD (AP) --

U.S. forces backed by airstrikes raided Sadr City killing 49 (alleged members of Al-Mahdi Army militia) on Sunday as they targeted a militia leader accused in high-profile kidnappings, the (US spokesperson) said. Iraqi officials said women and children were among the dead.

The Iraqi reports followed other recent claims of civilian deaths as a result of U.S. military action or shootings by private Western security teams protecting American diplomats and aid groups. The military said it did not know of any civilians killed.

Tensions also rose in northern Iraq after separatist Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's border with Iraq, killing at least 12 soldiers. Turkey's government has threatened to take action against the rebels based in northern Iraq if the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq does not stop the Kurdish attacks on Turkish forces.

Hours after the ambush, an Iraqi army officer from the border guard forces, Col. Hussain Rashid, said Turkish forces fired about 15 artillery shells toward Kurdish villages in the border area in northern Iraq. But there were no casualties.

In Sadr City, the U.S. military said "an estimated 49 (Iraqis)" were killed in three separate engagements during a raid targeting a militia leader specializing in kidnapping operations for which he sought funding from Iran.

U.S. troops returned fire after coming under sustained attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began to raid a series of buildings in the district, according to a statement, which added that some 33 (Iraqis) were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in airstrikes, which killed some six (Iraqis).

The U.S. troops were then attacked by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire as they left the area, killing another 10 combatants in subsequent clashes.

Iraqi police and hospital officials put the death toll at at least 13 and said a woman and three children were among the dead from the pre-dawn raid in the sprawling district. They said 52 people were injured.

Associated Press photos showed the bodies of two toddlers, one with a gouged face, swaddled in blankets on the floor of the morgue. Relatives said they were killed when helicopter gunfire hit their house as they slept. Their shirts were pulled up, exposing their abdomens. A diaper showed above the waistband of the shorts of one of the boys.

Several houses, cars and shops were damaged in the fighting, which witnesses said lasted two hours.

Iraqis have routinely claimed civilians were killed as U.S.-led forces stepped up raids to in Sadr City and other strongholds as part of an 8-month-old security operation to quell sectarian violence.

But the reported death toll in Sunday's strike was among the largest.

At the Imam Ali hospital, a local resident who goes by the name Abu Fatmah said his neighbor's 14-year-old son, Saif Alwan, was killed while sleeping on the roof. Fatmah said many of the casualties were people sleeping on the roof to seek relief from the hot weather and lack of electricity.

"Saif was killed by an airstrike and what is his guilt? Is he from the Mahdi Army? He is a poor student," Abu Fatmah said.

An uncle of 2-year-old Ali Hamid said the boy was killed and his parents seriously wounded when heavy gunfire from a helicopter struck the wall and windows of their house as they slept indoors.

APTN video showed a U.S. helicopter flying over the area while black smoke rose into the sky.

Other footage showed three bloodied boys sitting on hospital tables and an elderly man being treated for a head wound.

Mourners tied wooden coffins onto the tops of minivans with the plume of smoking rising in the background.

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