Children used in Iraqi militant attack-US general

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - A U.S. general on Tuesday said Iraqi insurgents used children in a suicide attack this weekend, raising worries that the insurgency has adopted a new tactic to get through security checkpoints with bombs.

Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, deputy director for regional operations in the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, said adults in a vehicle with two children in the backseat were allowed through a Baghdad checkpoint on Sunday.

The adults then parked next to a market in the Adamiya area of Baghdad, abandoned the vehicle and detonated it with the children still inside, according to the general and another defense official.

"Children in the back seat, lower suspicion, we let it move through," Barbero said. "They parked the vehicle, the adults run out and detonate it with the children in the back."


Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20385345.htm

[BoneDaddy]

1. Great ideology

The US occupation is totally wrong, but the mentality of someone who could do that to children is totally twisted.

[leftchick]

3. do you even believe this US military report?

I don't for a minute.

[BoneDaddy]

14. Why is it that if information comes

out that might put the light on the insanity of the extremist ideologies of that region it is immediately dismissed. I will give it the benefit of the doubt until I read other wise. After the Iran/Iraq war where both sides did attrocious things, such as the Iranians using children to detect mines, why is it so hard to believe this? The FACT that both the sunni and shia death squads are killing innocent people so indiscriminately is a testament to the toxicity of their fundamental belief system.

[daleo]

2. I have my doubts about this

These types of claims are often propaganda. It seems too lurid to believe.

[The Blue Flower]

4. And then they took the babies...

...out of their incubators.

[cigsandcoffee]

5. That's the thing about religious nutjobs.

They can rationalize killing children as martyrs. Sick people.

[ohio2007]

9. they love their religion more than their children

or they hate infidels more than they love their children.....unless
those children were kidnapped taken without parental consent or ransom paid. Such activities are becoming an ever increasing desperate act of violence.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Then they aborted pregnant women's babies

and packed their stomach's with explosive.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Sad when the US military has ZERO credibility on these issues.

[Tempest]

7. An updated version of the "throwing babies out of incubators" lie

The names changed, but the contestants haven't.

[reality_check]

8. Child murderers, the scum of the universe, whatever...

Islamic terrorists killing innocent children on purpose? No way!

You people need to get a f*cking clue. Remember Beslan? The terrorists (those trying to get a civil war going or just randomly killing civilians to hasten the US pullout) in Iraq are animals, less than human if you will. Calling them "freedom fighters" borders on the insane.
On second thought: it is insane.

[liberal renegade]

10. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm... n/t

[ShortnFiery]

11. "You people ..."

Yes, exactly who are "we people" to YOU? Do tell? :P

[hogwyld]

12. More bushco propoganda

The lengths that these criminals will resort to is just insane

[maddezmom]

13. Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, said his office had no record of the bombing

snip~
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a top American military spokesman in Baghdad, said late Tuesday that his office had no record of the bombing but that it was researching it. “I don’t know what event he’s talking about,” Colonel Garver said.

Agence France-Presse, quoting an unidentified American military official, said the incident occurred Sunday. The bombers parked the vehicle across the street from a school then ran away, leaving the children inside, the official told the news agency. The blast killed the children and three other civilians and wounded seven, the official said.

The American command on Tuesday gave its account of a disputed raid on a Shiite mosque in Baghdad late Monday that infuriated many in the Shiite community and led some to question their cooperation with the latest American-led security plan.

According to an American military statement, Iraqi soldiers stormed the mosque, in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya in northwestern Baghdad, in search of suspected militants. About 50 people were temporarily detained during the raid, but nobody was arrested and no bomb-making materials were discovered, military officials said.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/middleeast/21iraq.html?ref=world

[pampango]

15. The "On Point" radio show from WBUR interviewed

Martha Raddatz, chief White House correspondent for ABC News, ex-NPR reporter, and author of the book, "The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family" about the battle in Sadr City in March 2004.

http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/03/20070315_b_main.asp

She read a passage from that book which dealt with an attack on US troops in which children and women were in the front ranks.

Doesn't mean that the allegation that children are being used in suicide attacks is true. Heck, the story told by Raddatz might not be true.

It is hard to know where "insurgents" draw the line in issues like this. Is it acceptable to target markets, schools and religious procession (which guarantee a high death toll among women and children), but not to use children as suicide bombers themselves or in the front ranks of an attack? I am not sure what rules they apply to themselves as far as what is a "fair" tactic and what is not.

[bemildred]

16. Another day, another propaganda story.

When the government lies habitually, the people stop listening.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JNelson6563]

19. Wow.

That's awfully convenient.

Well, if that article says it, it must be so. Oy.

Julie--who often finds accusers/insinuators tend to project a lot

[sanskritwarrior]

18. I have two two tours in Iraq

I totally believe some insurgents would do this.