Falluja official: Only civilians killed

[Aidoneus]

Falluja official: Only civilians killed
Monday 27 September 2004

As Falluja residents pick up the pieces after two days of US air and artillery strikes, a city official is saying that all the casualties in the attacks were civilian residents.

Mahmud al-Jarisi, Falluja city commissioner, told Aljazeera that sections of the city that faced US military positions had been evacuated and the neighbourhoods recently targeted were in the heart of Falluja and crowded with civilians.
"The city houses large numbers of people," he said. "They cannot all leave the city due to their huge number and miserable living situations. They cannot leave and be a burden on other families," he added.

At least 15 people were killed and 25 wounded on Saturday in what US military authorities are calling a precision strike targeting "terrorists meeting in the Jolan district of Falluja".

"The last bombing targeted a residential area and casualties were all civilians," al-Jarisi said.

US military authorities, however, insist that no civilians were in the targeted areas, based on intelligence information they received.

"Intelligence sources indicated that approximately 10 terrorists were meeting at this location to plan operations targeting innocent Iraqi civilians and multi-national forces," said a US military statement on the strike carried out at 1800 GMT on Saturday.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5E4A0314-2335-40E1-9B11-DB32FB73679F.htm

[foo_bar]

1. Pentagon official: Only targets killed

from the department of It's not a bug, it's a feature!

[Vox_Reason]

2. 500 lb. "precision" munitions

Have an expected lethality radius of 400 meters.

Do the math.

[mike_c]

3. this is absolutely criminal....

There isn't the least justification for wanton killing of civilians. When are the American people going to wake up about what is being done in our names?

[John_H]

4. Smart bombs may not be so smart but they sure are expensive

" A Boeing official explains: "JDAM is not GPS guided, it is GPS aided, and the IMU on there is so good that once it has data transferred from the aircraft, it is extremely accurate with GPS denied." CEP (margin of error)using the IMU is said to be about twice that with GPS assistance, which is acceptable for larger munitions, ...

Translation: If the GPS doesn't work we just use bombs big enough to dismember anybody within a few humdered meters anyway.

"The US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps originally planned to acquire a total of over 87,000 JDAM kits from Boeing, with total program cost of over $2 billion USD. Over 30,000 had been built into the fall of 2002, and a total of 70,000 have been funded for delivery into 2004. The US military has been so enthusiastic about the weapon that their total buy may reach about 250,000, and there has been talk of eliminating unguided bombs entirely from the inventory. Unit price for a JDAM kit is about $18,000 USD in 1999 dollars, though original estimates had set it at $40,000 USD.

Every bomb chimp drops in iraq about 20 average senior citizens could be recieve full prescription drug coverage for one year. That's, what, 5 million people for the full billion dollar bomb buy. And that's just one weapon system.

[Eye and Monkey]

5. "US military authorities, however, insist" - "based on intelligence" - ???

It's been widely reported that intelligence source have largely dried-up. While troops are often left with "atmospherics" instead of real intelligence, THESE particular intelligence sources are soooooooo dependable that the US military KNOWS that they are accurate???

Uh-huh.:eyes: