3 Contractors Killed in Iraq

[lanlady]

BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 -- An assault on a convoy west of Baghdad Saturday killed at least three civilians and wounded at least two, the deadliest single attack on the firms hired to provide basic services for occupation authorities, and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down near the northern town of Tikrit, injuring one crew member.

The attack on the civilian contractors occurred Saturday afternoon near Habbaniya, 50 miles west of Baghdad in the violence-plagued Sunni triangle, the U.S. military said. Three vehicles were struck by a roadside bomb and then fired on with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, according to a military spokesman.

The spokesman released no information about the victims' nationalities.

The Associated Press said the vehicles belonged to European Landmine Solutions, a British company. The AP quoted David Rasmussen, an American employee of the firm who was wounded in the attack, and an Iraqi security guard, Laith Yousef -- both of whom were traveling in the convoy -- as saying their vehicles were attacked by American forces.

...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17483-2003Oct25.html

[RevolutionStartsNow]

1. Strange story

"Vehicles struck by a roadside bomp and fired on with RPGs and small arms" is not consistent with "attacked by American forces."

What gives?

[Maine-i-acs]

2. Very strange

The Black Hawk going down seemed to be downplayed a bit too. The resistance in Afghanistan got a lot more airplay when they shot down the Russian helicopters.

[leftchick]

3. Well this seems to be a different spin on the same story. Link...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E6CBA295-F813-4520-BF68-F268999512F0.htm

<snip>US troops kill civilians

Sunday 26 October 2003, 4:03 Makka Time, 1:03 GMT

Five Iraqis have been killed and several civilians seriously injured by US troops on a day of resistance attacks that left around 20 occupation soldiers wounded.


A female Iraqi translator and a male bodyguard were killed and a German man seriously wounded on Saturday when US soldiers opened fire at their car, Aljazeera's correspondent reported.

The shooting occurred in the aftermath of a roadside bomb blast near Falluja, 50kms west of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, a US military spokesman said three Iraqi civilians were killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb hit two civilian vehicles, which then came under fire on a highway 80km west of Baghdad.

An official at a local hospital said one of the wounded was a Westerner while his Iraqi translator was among the dead.

.....that headline will go over big in the Arab world! Get our troops the hell outa there!

[DemoTex]

4. Three Pacific Architect and Engineering (PA&E) employees killed near Hue.

Or three Litton tech-reps killed in rocket attack at Nha Trang. Or two members of Phillipine band killed at Cam Rahn Bay officers' club explosion.

Vietnam, redux. I don't care what you say. Been there, done that, seen this same shit.

[IndianaGreen]

5. An American engineer and an Iraqi security guard said U.S. troops shot

ALSO, NEAR the flashpoint city of Fallujah, three civilians were killed and two wounded when their convoy came under fire. An American engineer and an Iraqi security guard said U.S. troops shot at their vehicles, but the military denied that.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CB10

Our own civilians are contradicting the US military version of events. This is such a FUBAR situation that Bush has placed us in Iraq that nothing short of a complete and immediate withdrawal will do.

[leesa]

6. Must have been competition for Halliburton...had to blow them away

[izzie]

7. Are we ending up with a cowboy army?

I seem to be reading more and more about a triger happy bunch of young men with high power guns beating and shooting people.I do not like the sounds of this. With the churches some place making these people sub-human it does not bring out the best in the guys with the power.

[bemildred]

8. I think they are just spooked, in a shitty situation they

were not trained to deal with. Not meaning to absolve them of
all responsibility, but they should not be there, and they should
have been trained properly, and fear makes you stupid.

[Bozola]

10. bah!

"not trained to deal with"...is a nice way of say what, exactly?

The word nobody ever wants to say about the US military these days is INCOMPETENT.

F*ggin middle managed to death, by a bunch of sods who's only path to cushy promotion is to get "battle time" on their record; at any cost.

[bemildred]

11. There is nothing wrong with trying to be nice.

And the grunts are not (primarily) the responsible parties.
Just cannon fodder, they are, violent cannon fodder to be sure,
but there you are, its a war, and they are stuck there with guns
in their hands.

That said, I agree with your point.

[Kat 333]

12. "INCOMPETENT"

and that is being Kind. This shit has been going on all along. Seems that a good number of these "soldiers" are as out of control as their commander and chief. The Faux Cowboy Brigade.

[Zhade]

13. They're well-trained...to kill.

It's what soldiers do, by and large. Even noncombat troops are still trained to kill, if need be.

They never should have been sent, of course.

[0007]

9. Sounds like these folks are drunk,

or are on something besides fresh air.

'Tis strange indeed!