Features: CrossRoads

Why do we allow this Grief to go unchallanged? Why as a population of compassionate people do we allow our government to convince us that this is OK? Both the grief of the Iraqi's and the grief of the families of our soldiers....why?

October 8, 2007 | Iraqi relatives cry near a truck carrying bodies of the victims of a US air raid on the village of al-Jayzani, near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
(Photo: Ali Yussef / AFP)

Three US Troops Killed in Iraq Bombings
By Tina Susman ///The Los Angeles Times
Saturday 06 October 2007

Baghdad - Roadside bombs killed three American soldiers Friday, and U.S. and Iraqi forces differed in their accounts of an overnight raid on a suspected hide-out for Shiite Muslim militiamen.

The U.S. military said American forces backed by attack aircraft killed 25 militiamen in the assault on the village of Jizan Imam, about 40 miles northwest of Baghdad. Some Iraqi officials, though, said most of the dead were civilians mistaken for hostile forces.

The U.S. troop deaths brought to at least 3,813 the number of American forces killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to icasualties.org.

Two of the soldiers died when a bomb detonated near their vehicle in Baghdad, and the third was killed in a bombing in Salahuddin province, north of the capital.

According to the military account, men armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers opened fire on the U.S. troops. The Americans called in airstrikes and two buildings were destroyed, they said.

However, some Iraqi security forces in the area said the shooting erupted because of confusion over the arrival of the American forces at 1:30 a.m. They said some residents assumed that the troops were attackers and opened fire, sparking the gun battle.

An Iraqi army colonel said four houses were destroyed and that the dead were civilians. He said it was the fourth time the village had been hit by airstrikes.

It is common for U.S. and Iraqi officials to have conflicting accounts of military raids. U.S. military officials say they fire only on known or suspected threats, but Iraqis say the Americans often strafe buildings occupied by civilians, causing casualties.