Iraqis Drag Bodies Through Streets After Attack
by Michael Georgy
(my comment: these Iraqis must have watched Blackhawk Down.)
FALLUJA, Iraq - A crowd of cheering Iraqis dragged the charred and mutilated bodies of four contractors working for the U.S.-led coalition through the streets of Falluja Wednesday after they died in an ambush.
In a separate attack five American soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb was detonated beside their convoy west of Baghdad, the U.S. army said.
Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as charred bodies hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Wednesday, March 31 2004. Enraged Iraqis in this hotbed of anti-Americanism killed four foreigners Wednesday, including at least one U.S. national, took the charred bodies from a burning SUV, dragged them through the streets, and hung them from the bridge. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
The Falluja violence began when two four-wheel-drive vehicles were attacked by guerrillas on a main road in the town, 32 miles west of Baghdad. A crowd then set the vehicles ablaze and hurled stones into the burning wreckage.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. army in Iraq, said all four contractors in the vehicles were killed. He did not give their nationalities.
Television pictures showed one incinerated body being kicked and stamped on by a member of the jubilant crowd, while others dragged a blackened body down the road by its feet.
As one body lay burning on the ground, an Iraqi came and doused it with petrol, sending flames soaring.
At least two bodies were tied to cars and pulled through the streets, witnesses said.
"This is the fate of all Americans who come to Falluja," said Mohammad Nafik, one of the crowd surrounding the bodies.
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