This is the stuff we don’t hear. Although we know (or should know) that “precision bombing” is one of those Orwellian adverbial phrases that is more PR than objective fact. This piece from Juan Cole is referred to from within his more recent comments on the results of Lancet Study that speculates some 100,000 dead Iraqi’s sinced the fall of Baghdad.
Informed Comment : 08/01/2004 – 08/31/2004
The US Air Force bombed Kut overnight, killing some 84 persons and wounding about 176, according to the Al-Zahra Hospital. Kut is a Shiite city of 420,000 southeast of Baghdad and east of Najaf, which has seen fighting between Mahdi Army militiamen and police. The Kut hospital director, Khidr Fadl Arar, said that many of the dead and wounded were women and children.
According to Police colonel Salam Fakhri, the bombing began at 1:00 am Thursday and continued until 3:00 am. He said,
“The bombing was concentrated in Al Sharkia district as the US military felt there were a lot of Shi’ite militiamen in that area. It also has an office of (radical Shi’ite Muslim cleric and militia chief) Moqtada Al Sadr.”
I hadn’t heard anything about US warplanes bombing Kut on US television news on Thursday. It is useless, but I would like to point out that bombarding al-Sharqiyyah district because it has Mahdi Army fighters is inhumane and probably illegal. Civilians live there, and they will inevitably be hurt by the bombing. Unfortunately, there are no mechanisms for enforcing international law. Apparently, the American public will not even be told by their mass media that the US is behaving in this way.