The "Guardian handles the story correctly.
Defiant US says Falluja dead were rebels
600 dead in besieged Iraqi city - but marine commander claims victims mostly insurgents
Rory McCarthy in Baghdad and Julian Borger in Washington
Monday April 12, 2004
The Guardian
The United States last night robustly defended its controversial siege of Falluja which has cost the lives of more than 600 people over the past week, by claiming most of those who died were militants picked off with precision by US marines.
As a tense ceasefire held in the turbulent city west of Baghdad and an international hostage crisis persisted across Iraq, the US marine commander in charge of the siege of Falluja claimed 95% of those killed were legitimate targets.
The death toll in Falluja has sparked widespread international concern and has led to condemnation by the US-appointed Iraqi governing council.
Yesterday, the director of the town's general hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, said the vast majority of the dead were women, children and the elderly.
But when asked about the victims numbers, US marine Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne said: "What I think you will find is 95% of those were military age males that were killed in the fighting. The marines are trained to be precise in their firepower ... The fact that there are 600 goes back to the fact that the marines are very good at what they do," he said.
The figure of 600 was gathered from four clinics around the city and from Falluja general hospital, which have all been taking in bodies, said al-Issawi. Bodies were also being buried in two football fields. "We have reports of an unknown number of dead being buried in people's homes without coming to the clinics," Mr Issawi said.
Asked about the number of Iraqi casualties in Falluja, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the US military in Iraq, repeated that marines were "tremendously precise" in their operations and suggested any civilian deaths were caused by insurgents hiding among them. |
