Houston Chronicle : Sadr City raid raises questions about casualties

Sadr City raid raises questions about casualties

U.S. military, Iraqis differ over the numbers and whether civilians are included

By ALISSA J. RUBIN | New York Times | October 21, 2007

BAGHDAD — American forces on Sunday came under heavy fire in three locations in Sadr City, the Shiite enclave in Baghdad, and returned fire, killing 49 militants, said an American military official and a military statement about the incident.

Iraqi witnesses said that 17 people had been killed, but that one of them was an elderly woman and that of 40 people who had been wounded, a number were children.

At least four of the wounded children were at Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City, with family members helping the overtaxed hospital staff and anxiously hovering over the children.

Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki said in a statement that the American military should avoid using excessive force that ran the risk of harming civilians and that the government would investigate the episode. However, he did not condemn the attack outright.

The Iraqi government has given tacit approval for a number of similar American raids on both Sunni and Shiite militants.

Truce broken?

In the operation on Sunday, American soldiers were searching for an Iraqi who is believed to be in charge of a kidnapping ring. "Our objective was to go in and locate one high-value target responsible for an extensive Iranian-backed kidnapping ring," said the military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the military is still gathering data about the attack.

The operation failed to capture the man, but as it was under way, American soldiers came under heavy fire from gunmen using automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, the statement said.

The soldiers called for air support and the military said that at least 33 people were killed by ground fire in the initial engagement and six others by air support. As the American forces tried to leave the area, heavy fire continued and the attackers detonated a roadside bomb.

Another 10 Iraqis were killed as Americans attempted to withdraw.

Although the area has been controlled by the militia of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, it has been quiet since late August when al-Sadr asked them to lay down their arms.

The truce has allowed the American military to focus its attacks on people who have continued to fight despite al-Sadr's call for a truce. The military contends that at least some of those still fighting have links to Iran.

Facts in question

An official at Imam Ali Hospital, Abu Ibrahim, said that an elderly woman whose midsection had been nearly severed by shrapnel died this evening, bringing the total dead at the hospital to 16. There were 38 wounded who came to the hospital, he said. Officials at a second hospital in the neighborhood reported one dead and two wounded.

The military said it did not believe there were any civilian deaths as a result of the fighting. "Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," said the military statement.

The episode highlights the difficulty of determining the facts after military operations, especially ones involving firefights in which much happens quickly. The military said that the reason so few bodies were taken to hospitals is that the militants pick up the bodies of their own people to prevent the American soldiers from gaining intelligence about them.

However, often the opposite is true — with Iraqi casualty figures far higher than U.S. ones. In those cases, the U.S. military sometimes says that the discrepancy is a result of exaggeration by Iraqis. In any incident it is hard to tell which factors play the most important roles.