Ishaqi: “The Americans have done this before but they always deny it”

By RJ Schinner, 12/9/06

As the United States government debates the best way to win the war on Iraq, two homes were reduced to rubble and at least 20 people, including 6 women and 5 children, were left dead, their bodies charred and unrecognizable, in the town of Ishaqi.  Whatever decisions are made in Washington concerning their strategy in Iraq, the bottom line will be the horrors inflicted on the Iraqi people by an unjust occupation.

US soldiers were conducting raids on several buildings in Ishaqi before dawn on Friday, claiming to be acting on reports of al-Qaeda operatives in the area.  They say they came under fire and called in an airstrike on the buildings.  A statement released by the US military Friday said in part:

This is another step closer to defeating al Qaeda in Iraq and helping establish a safe and peaceful Iraq. Coalition Forces will continue to target not only senior al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, but all terrorists regardless of their titles or positions within the community.

But people in Ishaqi tell a different story.  Amer Alwan, the mayor of Ishaqi, told Reuters news agency that “the Americans have done this before but they always deny it.”  He told AFP news agency that “this is the third crime done by Americans in this area of Ishaqi. All the casualties were innocent women and children and everything they said about them being part of al-Qaeda is a lie.”

Local residents showed journalists the bodies of the victims, including women and children.  Several were charred and barely recognizable.  They told journalists that one whole family was killed in the attack.

Ishaqi suffered another massacre at the hands of the US military on March 15 of this year, with 11 people, including 5 children and a 75-year-old grandmother, left dead.

In this light, the above US military statement can be taken as nothing less than a naked celebration of the killing of innocents and a license to do so in the name of fighting terrorists.

The situation in Iraq is indeed full of chaos, and there is no easy solution to the tremendous suffering faced by the Iraqi people.  But the repeated experience in Ishaqi shows that continued US military precense will not help “establish a safe and peaceful Iraq”, but in fact do the opposite.