wrbones
04-02-03, 03:37 AM
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/72564.htm
INNOCENT VAN VICTIMS SET UP BY SADDAM: IMAM
By KATE SHEEHY
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April 2, 2003 --
U.S. military officials yesterday insisted that the blood of the seven Iraqi women and children killed in a checkpoint shooting is on Saddam Hussein's hands - as a local religious leader said the victims had been forced into the death van.
Sahid Mohammed Bakir Almohari - a prominent Muslim cleric from the town near where the shooting and an earlier homicide bombing occurred - said on Fox News Channel that villagers told him Iraqi militants mercilessly orchestrated both incidents to try to whip up anti-American support.
"These people, children and women, those were put in the bus by Saddam Hussein's forces, their husbands or fathers were taken hostages and the driver was ordered to speed up to the checkpoint and not stop so that they would be shot at," said Almohari, one of many Shiites opposed to Saddam.
As for Saturday's homicide bombing, in which an Iraqi posing as a cabdriver lured four soldiers to his vehicle at another nearby checkpoint and then blew them all up, the cleric said the "bomber" became involved only to save his family.
The thugs had threatened to kill his relatives, including his infant son, if he didn't comply, the cleric told Fox.
Almohari said one man who refused to carry out an attack at another checkpoint was personally killed by Ali Hassan, a k a "Chemical Ali," the mastermind of Iraq's brutal gassing of the Kurds in the '80s.
The cleric's comments came as U.S. military brass dismissed criticism of the soldiers who sprayed the civilians' van with bullets Monday.
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks insisted, "The blood is on the hands of the regime."
INNOCENT VAN VICTIMS SET UP BY SADDAM: IMAM
By KATE SHEEHY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2, 2003 --
U.S. military officials yesterday insisted that the blood of the seven Iraqi women and children killed in a checkpoint shooting is on Saddam Hussein's hands - as a local religious leader said the victims had been forced into the death van.
Sahid Mohammed Bakir Almohari - a prominent Muslim cleric from the town near where the shooting and an earlier homicide bombing occurred - said on Fox News Channel that villagers told him Iraqi militants mercilessly orchestrated both incidents to try to whip up anti-American support.
"These people, children and women, those were put in the bus by Saddam Hussein's forces, their husbands or fathers were taken hostages and the driver was ordered to speed up to the checkpoint and not stop so that they would be shot at," said Almohari, one of many Shiites opposed to Saddam.
As for Saturday's homicide bombing, in which an Iraqi posing as a cabdriver lured four soldiers to his vehicle at another nearby checkpoint and then blew them all up, the cleric said the "bomber" became involved only to save his family.
The thugs had threatened to kill his relatives, including his infant son, if he didn't comply, the cleric told Fox.
Almohari said one man who refused to carry out an attack at another checkpoint was personally killed by Ali Hassan, a k a "Chemical Ali," the mastermind of Iraq's brutal gassing of the Kurds in the '80s.
The cleric's comments came as U.S. military brass dismissed criticism of the soldiers who sprayed the civilians' van with bullets Monday.
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks insisted, "The blood is on the hands of the regime."