US helicopter kills 40 at wedding in Iraq
A US helicopter fired on a wedding party in western Iraq today, killing more than 40 people, Iraqi officials said.
The US military said it could not confirm the report and was investigating.
Lieutenant Colonel Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of Ramadi, said between 42 and 45 people were killed in the attack, which took place about 2.45am in a remote desert area near the border with Syria and Jordan.
He said the dead included 15 children and 10 women.
Dr Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.
Associated Press Television News obtained videotape showing a truck containing bodies of people who were allegedly killed in the incident.
Most of the bodies were wrapped in blankets and other cloths, but the footage showed at least eight uncovered, bloody bodies, several of them children. One of the children was headless.
Iraqis interviewed on the videotape said partygoers were firing in the air in traditional wedding celebration.
American troops have sometimes mistaken celebratory gunfire for hostile fire.
“I cannot comment on this because we have not received any reports from our units that this has happened nor that any were involved in such a tragedy,” said US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dan Williams.
“We take all these requests seriously and we have forwarded this inquiry to the Joint Operations Centre for further review and any other information that may be available,” Williams said.
APTN footage showed the truck of bodies and mourners with shovels digging graves over a wide, dusty area in Ramadi. A group of men crouched and wept around one coffin.
Al-Ani said people at the wedding were firing weapons in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and then left.
However, he said, helicopters attacked the area at about 3am. Two houses were destroyed in the attack.
US troops took the bodies and those injured in a truck to Rutba hospital, he said.
Ramadi is a stronghold of insurgents who are fighting the US-led coalition.
In July 2002, Afghan officials said 48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a US air strike in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province.
An investigative report released by the US Central Command claimed the air strike was justified because American planes had come under fire.
