U.S. soldiers accidentally kill Sunni leader in Iraq

Wednesday 24th September, 05:25 PM JST

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SushiSake3 at 09:39 PM JST - 24th September

USANeoCon - "I agree with Sarge. These soldiers were performing their duty under fire."

Now we have 2 people who have no idea what they are talking about :-)

The reasoning behind comments like this is like ..I can only call it 'Paris Hilton' for its inane shallowness and stunning lack of insight. :-)
BarryHObarmy at 09:54 PM JST - 24th September

This war is bad, and George Bush makes the soldiers kill thousands of Iraq'S. Obama will stop the fighting and, like , make peace. Why does Bush want so much war and to kill Iraqi people, its nuts man!
am1301 at 10:25 PM JST - 24th September

i wonder what to say afterwards, oops my bad.
Nippon5 at 10:25 PM JST - 24th September

The head of the group in Siniyah, Jassim al-Garrout, was killed after he rushed to the site of an ambush against U.S. forces in the area, which lies between the northern oil-hub of Beiji and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, according to witnesses and police. The troops then came under fire while searching a house and “shot a Sons of Iraq leader who was mistaken for the enemy when he entered the house,” said Navy Lt Cmdr David Russell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. Medical aid was administered, the military said, but the troops were unable to save al-Garrout.

Russell said the U.S. soldiers had warned their Sunni allies to identify themselves and to stay clear of the house, and the shooting was being investigated.

Since most say such uneducated things as

I'd be careful who you called 'idiots' on this board - there's still some posters who wrap themselves in the US flag and think that doing so makes everything OK, legal and permissable.(has nothing to do with flag wrapping it has to do with being in the situation before , you know under fire from an enemy force,your such a drama queen)**

Meanwhile, the rest of us live in the real world. (hrmm have you been to war and done urban combat in a hostile area?)

Or heres another good one said by BarryHObarmy/Sushisake3/USANeoCon/what ever other name this person uses..

Now we have 2 people who have no idea what they are talking about :-)

The reasoning behind comments like this is like ..I can only call it 'Paris Hilton' for its inane shallowness and stunning lack of insight. :-) (talking to yourself again? no one considers these phoney post real except you? If I didnt know any better then I would say you generated them)

For the rest of the people who understand underfire situations we can see how an accident like this happened.. Soldiers are in a urban combat small arms fire situation when a man dressed in traditional arab clothing comes running though the fire fight zone and enters a house being searched by the soldiers, they see this man running at them and they shoot..

It happens with policemen in every country, they shoot a child who grabs a cell phone after being told dont move, or any other situation where the tension is high.

It is a horrible thing to happen but why is this individual running into a hot zone then into the actual building being searched??? Seems a very foolish move to me.. I try not to run into gun battles, you tend to get shot.

Sorry but if you havent been in this type of situation its easy to say stupid this or stupid that..
cleo at 10:42 PM JST - 24th September

It happens with policemen in every country, they shoot a child who grabs a cell phone

That does NOT happen in 'every country'. I hope parents everywhere would be horrified and raise an unholy stink if it happened in any country.

why is this individual running into a hot zone then into the actual building being searched??? Seems a very foolish move to me.

The article says he was killed after he rushed to the site of an ambush against U.S. forces in the area. In other words he was foolish enough to try and help his allies while of an Arab appearance. In future when US troops are injured maybe their Iraqi allies will just leave them lying where they are; they would be very foolish to try and help, wouldn't they? Especially if they happened to be wearing 'traditional garb', which apparently is a crime in itself.

As you say, its easy to say stupid this or stupid that.
rjd_jr at 11:07 PM JST - 24th September

The correct response to incidents like these is not to bring in excuses galore, but to offer a full apology. The pro war crowd also needs to learn this, to offer regret, not make excuses. Fact is troops can ill afford to allow these "friendly fire" incidents to pile up as has been going on, with the mess things are already in. This isn't the time to be arrogant, if it were the other way around and Iraqi forces accidentally killed U.S. troops the same people here and elsewhere would be screaming for their heads.
888naff at 12:02 AM JST - 25th September

..if some of the wanna be presidents don't even know what a sunni is then how will the soldiers even know which one is the sunni leader...(i'm joking)... ranks along side watching a us soldier at the beginning of the iraq war gob smacked that the local Iraqis couldn't understand his English orders how ever loudly he shouted. Its a shame when some peoples reputation are so bad that people regularly presume the worse before actually knowing whether the truth is any better.
WilliB at 12:19 AM JST - 25th September

That will cost them.

The US was stupid to get into this Sunni-Shiite mess. They should leave the Shiite and Sunni Arabs to slug it out and help the only group who really appreciates them -- the Kurdish Sunnis, who are the only ones of the whole bunch who are actually practising a moderate islam and deserve their freedom. But they´ll be the big losers in the end.
bushlover at 01:01 AM JST - 25th September

Warned to stay away but rushing in? Well then this result will happen. The US forces don't have a good track record of keeping their allies safe. Best to heed warnings.
888naff at 03:34 AM JST - 25th September

is iraq really a war zone? no big deal? if the war on terror is gonna continue period then war zone even if incorrectly describing a place cannot be an excuse.
majimekun at 04:31 AM JST - 25th September

It doesn't require a lot of imagination to aknowledge that there always is a good percentage of confusion on any battlefield.
MeanRingo at 04:43 AM JST - 25th September

The americans made it a warzone their damn selves. Stop shooting people who are dressed the way normal people dress in their own bloody neighbourhoods. Better yet yankee soldiers, stop shooting people in general.
OgieDoggie at 08:40 AM JST - 25th September

Something tells me it was NO accident...there's more going on here than they are saying.
Nippon5 at 12:33 PM JST - 25th September

Cleo Name a country that hasnt had a friendly fire situation, please prove me wrong on it happens in every country... Cause I wish you were right and not just talking...

Once again since you havent been in a urban fire fight I will put your comments in the trash were they belong.. You dont have time to judge is this man running at me an innocent or is he attacking me, you have to react or die, but you wont understand it so Im not wasting my time explaining it to you again.

Im not pro war nor do I even like war, but Ive been in it and I know what is going through your mind when people are shooting at you while they hide in schools, churches, houses, or behind innocents..

As far as an Apology that is always done, but what good does it do, the victums family never sees it as an accident and the soldier who shoot him never forgets he killed an innocent....

The cure is to let all the countries of the world police and fight for their own and the US to stop wasting our money and our people helping the rest of the world.. That goes for aid or any type of economical support to every country. Let the world do what it wants as long as it doesnt affect us directly..
freakashow at 11:56 PM JST - 25th September

Nippon5:

You dont have time to judge is this man running at me an innocent or is he attacking me, you have to react or die, but you wont understand it so Im not wasting my time explaining it to you again.

You might be right about that. Nonetheless, a crime was committed and ended in the death of a Sunni leader. Those who perpetrated this crime must serve the time. It is the same if a cop accidentally killed an unarmed civilian in the line of duty. An investigation would be held and justice would be served. He or she would still have to serve their sentence and do time even if the circumstances were extreme. Heck, it's the same when someone is driving on the street, swerves to avoid hitting a cat, but ends up killing a pedestrian. They are guilty nonetheless.