Two Iraqi children killed in Baghdad clash -U.S.

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Two Iraqi children were killed and another was wounded in a firefight between American soldiers and gunmen in southern Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said.

The children were found on the scene where the insurgents had holed up in a bunker and a shipping container on the eastern bank of the Tigris River during a gunbattle with U.S. forces on the opposite side, the military said.

The incident illustrated how easily Iraqis get caught up in Baghdad's violence. U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a crackdown last week that many see as a final attempt to avert a civil war.

Earlier on Friday, the U.S. military said it was investigating whether civilians, including two children, were killed during another fierce gunbattle in the western town of Ramadi on Wednesday that ended with U.S. air strikes destroying several buildings.

In the Baghdad incident, Reuters photographer Carlos Barria had been embedded with a separate U.S.-Iraqi patrol that came across the three boys at the scene after hearing gunfire for 15 minutes and two explosions. The patrol found one dead boy and two others, who were wounded and hiding in a concrete ditch.

more:http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/YAT419367.htm

[maddezmom]

1. Pic from the scene***graphic***

[Eugene]

2. Reuters: Iraqi boys in wrong place at wrong time in Baghdad

Iraqi boys in wrong place at wrong time in Baghdad
23 Feb 2007 16:26:16 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Carlos Barria

BAGHDAD, Feb 23 (Reuters) - "It's a kid, it's a kid, don't shoot," the Iraqi
translator shouted to American soldiers as the boy screamed, cowering in a
concrete ditch by a river bank in southern Baghdad.

Nearby, the body of another boy lay behind a metal garbage container that had
been torn open by a high-calibre round or a blast. Blood stained his hair.

The two boys, and another who was also hiding in the ditch on the eastern side
of the Tigris River, looked no older than 12.

-snip-

It was unclear who fired the shot that killed the boy, but the incident illustrates
how easily Iraqis get caught up in Baghdad's violence. U.S. and Iraqi forces
launched a crackdown last week that many see as a final attempt to avert civil war.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PAR358233.htm