ARAB TIMES (Kuwait): Leave ... you've brought us only death

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

Leave ... you've brought us only death

FALLUJAH, Iraq, (Agencies): Gunfire erupted throughout this angry "Sunni Triangle" city Saturday as residents gathered to bury eight policemen killed by American soldiers in a friendly fire incident. A religious leader exhorted the people to save their bullets for the "chests of the enemy." Eight flag-draped coffins were carried into the Sunni Muslim Al-Mahmoud mosque for religious rites before they were given to family members for burial. As gunfire crackled from every corner of the city, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, the mosque imam Fawzi Namiq called for an end of the shooting. "Save your bullets for the chests of the enemy," he said through loudspeakers at the mosque.

The US military issued an apology for the incident, offered condolences to families that lost loved ones and said an investigation had begun. However, military spokesman Lt Col George Krivo said the Americans only fired after they had been "attacked from a truck by unknown forces." "Coalition forces," he said, "immediately returned fire and the subsequent engagement lasted approximately three hours. Regrettably during the incident extensive damage was done to the (Jordanian) hospital and several security personnel were killed, including eight Iraqis and one Jordanian national." Krivo read the statement Saturday in which he said the military wished "to express our deepest regret for this incident to the families who have lost loved ones and express our sincerest condolences."

In Fallujah, the angry residents roughed up reporters who were in the city to witness the funeral ceremony and burials. A clergyman grabbed one armed man and prevented him from shooting at a departing AP Television News car as it sped from the city. A CNN cameraman was beaten and an Associated Press photographer was hit in the face. The military's apology did not curb anger in Fallujah, where Taleb Hameed, a 30-year-old school teacher voiced outrage. "We want the Americans to leave our country because they have brought us only death," he said. "We are fed up with their apologies. We will continue our resistance."

MORE AT: http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/world/Viewdet.asp?ID=1094&cat=b

[kentuck]

1. Is the press still "embedded"?

"..A clergyman grabbed one armed man and prevented him from shooting at a departing AP Television News car as it sped from the city. A CNN cameraman was beaten and an Associated Press photographer was hit in the face...."