Ahhhh crap...
From
Fox News:
bq.
U.S. Probing Report of 40 Iraqis Killed at Wedding
A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party early Wednesday in western Iraq, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating.
bq. Lt. Col Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of the city of Ramadi (search), said between 42 and 45 people died in the attack, which took place about 2:45 a.m. in a remote desert area near the border with Syria and Jordan. He said those killed included 15 children and 10 women.
bq. Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said partygoers had fired into the air in a traditional wedding celebration. American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.
This happened once before:
bq. In July 2002, Afghan officials said 48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. An investigative report released by the U.S. Central Command said the airstrike was justified because American planes had come under fire.
This is tragic but I can see the point of the people in the helicopter - it's 2:45AM, remote desert, you are flying and you see a cluster of people firing their weapons into the sky. This is not the time to land and ask questions especially since there are lots of RPGs floating around... Tragic story though.
Posted by DaveH at May 19, 2004 11:52 AM