http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...2&pageNumber=0
Quote:
It remained unclear just what happened in the early hours of Wednesday at a remote spot near the Syrian border. The U.S. military said an air strike killed about 40 foreign fighters. Local people said the dead were civilians attending a wedding.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said the attack targeted "a suspected foreign-fighter safe house." "We took ground fire and we returned fire," he said. "We estimate that around 40 were killed. But we operated within our rules of engagement."
Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division which controls the area, told reporters that more than two dozen men of fighting age were among the dead.
Asked about witnesses who told Reuters and other media there were many women and children among about 40 civilians killed, Kimmitt told a news conference in Baghdad: "We had significant intelligence that caused us to conduct a military operation."
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So maybe 25 of the 40 people killed were men of fighting age, that would perhaps be something from 18 to 60. Wow, good thing they were killed. And all the newborn sons shall be cast into the river, for else they shall one day be men of fighting age....
And a "suspected safe house"? Well better to bomb than to be sorry I guess.
I wonder if that "significant intelligence" is as reliable as the "significant intelligence" that lead to the whole invasion?
Now I will wait for any additional information about the incident, although impartial information will probably be hard to get. But the military's explanations don't sound very convincing at this point.