Funeral for Two Iraqis Turns Violent

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031206/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=1480

<snip>SAMARRA, Iraq - A funeral for two Iraqis killed in a firefight with U.S. troops turned violent Saturday, with mourners killing a security officer and chanting pro-Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) slogans over his body.

Further north, gunmen killed a policeman, as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld assessed security in the region.


The funeral in Samarra started after American forces returned the bodies of the Iraqis killed here last week to their families. The town is in the so-called Sunni Triangle, the central region north and west of Baghdad where opposition to the U.S. occupation has been fiercest.


After a somber procession through the town, mourners began firing weapons in the air — as is customary — and members of the U.S.-led Iraqi Civil Defense Corps ordered them to stop, witnesses said. The mourners fired at the paramilitary forces, shooting a civil guard in the head, and set their truck on fire.


As the rest of the civil defense corps fled, dozens of people jumped up and down on the burning pickup and near the body, chanting, "Long live Saddam! Death to the traitors!"

[Military Brat]

1. Wow, another positive sign that we are winning hearts and minds

Not

[IndianaGreen]

11. Making great progress here!

The same people that hated Saddam a few months ago, are now shouting his name in defiance of the US. Bush has united the Iraqis!

[underpants]

2. Rummy had to go there to assess security in the region?

I think I could almost do it from here:

Not good and Bremer expects attacks to esculate.

[Brucey]

3. Hidden in the article, this tidbit:

"The U.S. military initially claimed to have killed 54 resistance fighters in running battles last Saturday in Samarra. Iraqi police and hospital officials dismissed those claims, saying eight bodies were recovered after the clash and that most of the dead were civilians."

They hate us because of our freedom.

[54anickel]

4. Question - I thought we originally had no bodies from that conflict?

So what's this?

The funeral in Samarra started after American forces returned the bodies of the Iraqis killed here last week to their families.

Would the American forces have claimed the bodies from the hospitals?

[leftchick]

5. I found that puzzling also.....

of course we will probably never know the real story of where those bodies came from....

[qanda]

6. That was my very first thought...

I remembered that they said they had no bodies and now I read this-- What is going on? I don't believe anything I hear anymore.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. I need more coffee...

That went right by me when I read the article.

Good catch.

[maryallen]

8. Paramilitary??

Quote from the article:
" ... mourners fired at the paramilitary forces ..."

So, we've set up "paramilitary forces" in Iraq?
Not good; not good at all.

Central America, anyone?

[54anickel]

9. Good catch...Journalistic license, or something a bit more?

[0007]

10. What does Rumsfeld know? Nothing!

What does Bremer know? Nothing! And junior knows even less.