“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding party of the lamb.”
– Revelation 19:9
“About two dozen guests had crammed into the three occupied houses for a wedding, raising the number of occupants to more than 100, said the elder. The bombers came early in the morning. Precision-guided bombs vaporized all five buildings and a second wave an hour later hit people digging in the rubble and, judging from hair and flesh on the edge of three 40-foot holes some distance from the complex, those trying to flee.”
“Bombing Blows Away Innocent Marriage Party,”
Rory Carroll, The Guardian/UK, January 7, 2002.
“According to the UN, unarmed women and children were chased and killed by American helicopters, some as they fled to shelter and others as they tried to rescue survivors.”
“New York Times Buries Story of Airstrikes on Afghan Civilians”
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, January 9, 2002
“At least 10 persons were killed and many others were wounded when a US war plane bombed a village in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, the Afghan Islamic Press reported today… A wedding was in progress…”
“US Plane Bombs Afghan Village”
The Tribune, Chandigarh, India, May 18, 2002
“Among the dead were 27 members of the extended Rakat family, their wedding guests and even the band of musicians hired to play at the ceremony, among them Hussein al-Ali from Ramadi, one of the most popular singers in western Iraq. Dr Alusi said 11 of the dead were women and 14 were children.”
“Survivors Describe Wedding Massacre as Generals Refuse to Apologize”
Rory McCarthy, The Guardian/UK, May 21, 2004
“Ashraf Akhras and his bride, Nadia Al-Alami, were celebrating their wedding with around 900 Jordanian and Palestinian guests [at the Radission Hotel in Amman, Jordan]. Amongst the 38 people killed in the explosion were the fathers of the bride and groom.”
Wikipedia.org
“A bomb ripped through a wedding convoy in Baghdad,
killing at least 15 people, four of them children, the interior ministry says.”
“Bomb Strikes Iraq Wedding Party”
BBC News, October 31, 2006
“Two suicide bombers attacked a wedding caravan today as it drove through a crowded market district past bystanders cheering the bride and groom, killing at least 35 people and wounding 65 in a town northeast of Baghdad, officials said.”
“Suicide Blasts Kill 35 in Iraqi Wedding Procession”
Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press, May 1, 2008
“Afghan officials said fighter aircraft battling militants accidentally killed up to 27 Afghans walking to a wedding ceremony in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday, the second military attack in three days with reports of civilian deaths.”
“Afghan Officials: US Missiles Killed 27 Civilians”
Associated Press, July 6, 2008
“The two grainy videos, apparently taken by cell phones, showed bodies lying side-by-side on the mosque floor, covered by floral-patterned blankets and black-and-white checkered shawls. One young boy lay curled in a fetal position; others looked as though they were asleep. One child had half its head blown off.”
“Videos Show Dead Afghan Children After US Raid in Azizabad”
Associated Press, September 8, 2008
“No one in our world thinks to memorialize them, nor is there any cumulative record of their deaths. Whole extended families have been wiped out, while the dead and wounded run into the hundreds, and yet who remembers?”
“The Wedding Crashers”
by Tom Engelhardt, July 13, 2008
“The incident in Azizabad may represent the single deadliest media-verified attack on civilians by US forces since the invasion of 2001. Many bodies had to be dug out of the rubble. There may have been as many as sixty children among the dead.”
“An Anatomy of Collateral Damage”
Tom Engelhardt, Asia Times, September 17, 2008
“On November 5, 2008, Afghan President Hamid Karzai pleaded with US President-elect Barack Obama to put an end to civilian casualties in Afghanistan as villagers said US warplanes bombed a wedding party, killing 37 people, including 23 children and 10 women.”
Informed Consent
Juan Cole, November 6, 2008
Imagine yourself at the wedding at the village of Qalaye Niazi Afghanistan in December of 2001, or in Bal Khel Village Afghanistan in May of 2002, or in Oruzgan Province Afghanistan in July of 2002, or Mukaradeeb in western Iraq in May of 2004, or in Sadr City outside Baghdad in October of 2006, or riding in the Iraqi wedding procession in May of 2008, or in Nangarhar Province Afghanistan in July of 2008, or helping the villagers sort out the bodies of the sixty dead children in Azizabad Afghanistan in August of 2008, or in the village of Wech Baghtu Afghanistan in November of 2008, or in Farah Afghanistan in May of 2009, where the local people collected the names of over 140 dead civilians to present to the authorities.
For the basic information on which this list is based, see “Civilian Casualties of the War in Afghanistan.”
To be fair I should say that the Farah massacre was not said to be a wedding attack, and neither was the huge Azizabad massacre,1 and although the Sadr City bombing was a wedding attack, it was attributed to a suicide bomb rather than a US air strike, and so was the destruction of the Iraqi wedding convoy in 2008.2 The destruction of the wedding reception at the Radisson Hotel in Amman, Jordan in November of 2005, was also attributed to suicide bombers rather than an air strike.3
1 “Videos Show Dead Afghan Children After US Raid in Azizabad”
Associated Press, September 8, 2008
2 “Suicide Blasts Kill 35 in Iraqi Wedding Procession”
Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press, May 1, 2008
This article was researched and written by Felton Davis with NYC Catholic Worker.