"Hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed by Coalition bombs"

[Armstead]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1212-01.htm

Published on Friday, December 12, 2003 by OneWorld.net
Cluster Bombs, Decapitation Bombing Killed Hundreds, Says Human Rights Watch
by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of civilians were killed by Coalition cluster bombs and air strikes designed to decapitate the Iraqi leadership, according to a new report by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said the high cost in civilian casualties caused by the two tactics may have violated the laws of war.

The report, which found that U.S.-led Coalition forces in Iraq generally tried to comply with international humanitarian law, nonetheless concluded that U.S. ground forces were too eager to use cluster munitions in populated areas, and that 50 decapitation attacks failed to hit a single one of their targets, but caused dozens of civilian deaths and injuries.

Coalition forces generally tried to avoid killing Iraqis who weren't taking part in combat, said Kenneth Roth, HRWs executive director. But the deaths of hundreds of civilians could have been prevented.

The 147-page report, Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq, also details numerous violations of international humanitarian law by Iraqi forces, including their use of human shields, the abuse of Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, the use of anti-personnel landmines, and the deployment of weapons and other military equipment in mosques, hospitals and archaeological and cultural sites

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[Parche]

1. terra

But we are they to save them...........................

[Union Thug]

2. Right.. and to liberate...

Their souls from their bodies.

[Armstead]

3. Clark, Dean, Kerry.......

With all the candidate spatting, I guess this little matter of hundreds of Iraqi dead is of little import