From: Nancy Hey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: "STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN!" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 23 Iraqis murdered by American terrorists > > Japan Today > Friday, June 22, 2001 > > BAGHDAD � Iraq said on Wednesday 23 people had died when Western war planes > fired at a playing field in a northern Iraqi town. Britain and the United > States flatly denied mounting any attack. > > The Iraqi News Agency INA said U.S. and British war planes raided Talafar > district near the city of Mosul in what would be the bloodiest reported > Western attack for two and a half years. > > "Coalition forces (U.S. and British aircraft) did not conduct any raids on > northern Iraq yesterday," Pentagon spokesman Bryan > Whitman said. > > "The raids, which targeted a football field, martyred 23 citizens and > wounded 11 others who were playing football," it said. > > Iraqi television said the dead were aged between four and 30 and that four > brothers were among those killed in the "heinous crime" on Tuesday. > > It showed short film of the site where it said the planes struck, a sandy > piece of ground surrounded by houses. > > On the ground lay a broken crutch, a bloodied cloth and fragments of a > missile, one of which bore the words "Guided Bomb" in English. > > "I was watching the football match when the missile hit the place," Taha > Nyef Hussein told the television. He said two of his brothers had died. > > The United States and Britain swiftly denied mounting any such attack. > > "Coalition forces (U.S. and British aircraft) did not conduct any raids on > northern Iraq yesterday," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters on > Wednesday. > > "We conducted routine enforcement of the no-fly zone. We did not engage. All > our aircraft returned safely," said a spokesman for the U.S. European > Command, based in Germany. The Ministry of Defense in London also said no > weapons had been dropped. > > Iraqi TV showed badly injured boys lying in hospital beds, and their fathers > saying their sons had been hurt in the raid. > > It also showed hundreds of people carrying Iraqi flags in a funeral > procession, chanting "America is the enemy of God" as coffins were carried > atop red and white taxis. > > "The American and British governments are known for their lies and > distortion of facts," Iraqi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Naji > Sabri told Reuters. > > "The new crime is evidence of their political bankruptcy." > > In an earlier report on Tuesday, also denied by the Western allies, Iraq > said its anti-aircraft defenses had hit one of a group of allied planes that > patrol the northern no-fly zone from their airbase in southern Turkey. > > Western air raids have become a regular occurrence since Iraqi air defenses > began in 1998 to fire at jets patrolling the northern and southern no-fly > zones set up by Western powers after the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq does not > recognize the zones. > > Allied forces say they fire on Iraqi anti-aircraft units when threatened by > them. > > Tuesday's is the highest single-day death toll reported by Iraq since the > challenges from Iraqi air defenses prompted the United States and Britain to > bomb targets across Iraq for four days at the end of > 1998, in the "Desert Fox" campaign. > > If confirmed, it would bring the reported toll from frequent bombings since > then to over 300 dead and 1,000 wounded. > > In the previous deadliest toll since Desert Fox, Iraq says 19 civilians died > in widespread raids on August 17, 1999. > > The two no-fly zones were set up after the expulsion of Iraqi troops from > Kuwait in 1991 to protect Kurdish dissidents in northern Iraq and > anti-Baghdad Shi'ite Muslims in the south from attack by President > Saddam Hussein's army. > > "The crime is part of a package that also includes the American-British > proposal that the two states are trying to adopt at the Security Council," > said Sabri, referring to a U.S.-British draft UN resolution to revamp the > 11-year-old trade sanctions on Iraq. > > Iraq's deputy foreign minister Nizar Hamdoon, on a visit to Norway, said he > had not seen the INA report but condemned all U.S. and British air raids. > > "Those bombings continue on an almost daily basis in violation of > international law and in violation of Iraqi sovereignty," Hamdoon, a former > ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters. > > Russia's Interfax news agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying "the > patrolling by Anglo-American air forces in the so-called no-fly zones should > be stopped immediately." (Reuters News) > __________________________________ _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
