WP: Mystery Hangs Over Baghdad Battle, Conflicting Accounts...

[Rose Siding]

Conflicting Accounts Obscure Even Identity of Combatants in 2 Days of Street Fighting

As the shooting died down Tuesday afternoon, the tired and frightened residents of Baghdad's Adhamiyah neighborhood packed their cars and prepared to flee. After two days of street fighting that had kept them locked in their houses, they did not want to see what might come next.

The details of the unusual street battle that began Monday remained shrouded by the fog of war. U.S. and Iraqi soldiers thought they were shooting at insurgents who were trying to ambush them. Local men on neighborhood watch in the predominantly Sunni Arab area thought they were shooting at Shiites who were coming to kidnap and kill them. Residents hiding in their homes, simply praying for survival, could only guess who was fighting whom.

"As far as I know, a group of militants went inside and there was fighting with the residents of Adhamiyah, and later on, the police were involved and the MNF-I were involved," said Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, an adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, referring to Multi-National Forces-Iraq, the official name for foreign troops in the U.S.-led military coalition here. "We don't have a clear picture of what's happening there."

Kadhimi's account, vague as it was, was about as much as anyone outside Adhamiyah could figure out for certain. With rumor, speculation and fear filling the void of actual knowledge, the conflicting accounts resembled "Rashomon," the classic Akira Kurosawa film in which a crime takes place and each witness tells a completely different story of what happened.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/18/AR2006041801630.html

[WhiteTara]

1. I see the put this on page 10

hoping no one will notice. I wonder if this is going to be another massacre.

[madrchsod]

2. maybe this guy can help..scroll down page

http://baghdadtreasure.blogspot.com/
Treasure of Baghdad

i guess no one wants to leave the green city.

as for those iraqi politicians read this

http://twentyfourstepstoliberty.blogspot.com

[Judi Lynn]

3. Since their pResident rewrote the Golden Rule, (Do unto them so

they can't do unto you) it's possible there never WERE any "insurgents," and the citizens were merely shooting back at people who were trying to kill them.

As thoughtfully expressed, "Frankly, if somebody attacks coalition forces, or Iraqi army forces, it doesn't matter who they are," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, another U.S. military spokesman.

Makes you wonder how many thousands of times this has happened before the soldiers were lied into this war.

[leftchick]

4. well one thing is crystal clear. Everyone is an insurgent to the US

<snip>

"The gunmen are suspected insurgents," Sgt. Doug Anderson, a U.S. military spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. "It is not known whether they are people from the neighborhood. We cannot confirm that the Iraqi Army may have fought against the police, or at least people dressed as police."

"Frankly, if somebody attacks coalition forces, or Iraqi army forces, it doesn't matter who they are," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, another U.S. military spokesman.