US blocks attempt by UN to investigate Saudi-led bombings' civilian deaths

The Saudi-led bombing of Yemen that began last March has not only created a great deal of property damage and displaced thousands of people — it has also resulted in many civilian casualties.

+ Add Image

Two recent incidents have resulted in a demand from several sources for an independent inquiry. In one incident, Saudi helicopters are reported to have attacked a village in the north of Yemen killing 30 civilians. In another missile attack on a wedding party, the Guardian reports 131 civilians killed.

At the UN, the Netherlands pushed for a UN investigation into the incidents. However, after the Saudis complained, the US and several other western countries instead voted in favour of a Saudi resolution that would empower their own forces to investigate themselves. The White House said it was "deeply concerned," "shocked and saddened" by reports of the civilian casualties and urged the Saudi-led coalition carrying out the bombing to be precise in its targeting. Ned Price, the White House National Security Council spokesperson said: "We take all credible accounts of civilian deaths very seriously and again call on all sides of the conflict in Yemen to do their utmost to avoid harm to civilians and to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law.We call for an investigation into these reported civilian casualties and for the findings to be reported publicly."

Unlike the Netherlands' resolution, the Saudi resolution would have the coalition do the investigating:The Saudi text calls for an investigation, but empowers the Saudi-led coalition to conduct that investigation, only calling on the UN to offer support to them with “technical assistance,” and then only to the extent they request it.The Saudis have already made it perfectly clear that they deny they had anything to do with the wedding carnage. They say they can prove they made no attacks at the time. The Saudi response to the helicopter incident is similar: A Saudi official said the coalition had played no role in any attack in the area."This is totally false news. We deny it," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters, adding that no coalition helicopters operated so far from the border.

As the appended video shows, the Saudi-led coalition evidently has used cluster bombs supplied by the United States in some of its missions. There is an international treating banning the use of the weapons but neither the US nor the Saudis have signed it.

US helcopters strike high rises in Baghdad

Obviously operations such as these will kill and wound many civilians as well as insurgents. Air attacks in densely populated areas such as these highrises show the disregard for Iraqi civilian casualties by the occupiers. The article also illustrates the increasing role of civilian contractors with the shooting down of a Blackwater helicopter. This is part of the increasing for profit aspect of warfare. Private contractors even provide security for the president of Afghanistan, US contractors of course!


U.S. helicopters strike high-rises in Baghdad By Ross Colvin and Ahmed Rasheed
21 minutes ago



BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. helicopters attacked gunmen holed up inside high-rise buildings in Baghdad on Wednesday in what the U.S. military said was an operation to regain control of a major street cutting through the heart of the city.


U.S. armored vehicles firing their heavy machine guns joined the day-long battle between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militants in Haifa Street, U.S. military spokesman Major Steven Lamb told Reuters.

He said U.S. troops also fired mortars after coming under machinegun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attack during the operation to restore Iraqi security control of the Sunni insurgent stronghold, which lies within 2 km of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified compound housing Iraq's government.

"A lot has been coming from high-rise buildings. We are firing at terrorists in those buildings," Lamb said.

The battle came a day after President Bush told a joint session of the U.S. Congress in his annual State of the Union address that America dared not fail in Iraq and called on lawmakers to support his plan to send more troops.

Lamb had no details on casualties, but the Iraqi Defense Ministry said at least two terrorists had been killed and 11 suspects detained. A local resident said he had counted six bodies, all men, one of whom had a rifle lying next to him.

A local journalist said he helped transport 37 wounded people to hospital, including women and children, in three ambulances that managed to get through the security cordon.

Haifa Street, a long thoroughfare of high-rise buildings built by Saddam Hussein in the early 1980s, runs along the west bank of the Tigris River that cuts through the capital.

While the area was too dangerous for journalists to venture into, helicopters could be seen circling overhead amid the repetitive thud of mortar fire. U.S. and Iraqi forces said they killed more than 100 militants there earlier this month.

The Iraqi government said then the area was riddled with "terrorist hideouts" and said it had captured many foreign Arab fighters linked to al Qaeda in the operation two weeks ago.

The U.S. military said Wednesday's mission was "not an operation designed solely to target Sunni insurgents, but rather aimed at rapidly isolating all active insurgents and gaining control of this key central Baghdad location."

Battling growing Sunni-Shi'ite violence, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced a major security plan for Baghdad, vowing to crack down on violence on all sides. But his aides stress it has not yet started.

Bush has said he is sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq, most to bolster the new crackdown, despite fierce opposition from Democrats who now control Congress, resistance within his own party and public skepticism.

"On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of the battle. Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory," Bush told Congress.

The U.S. military said two U.S. Marines were killed in combat on Tuesday in western Anbar region, heartland of the Sunni insurgency, where Bush plans to send 4,500 fresh troops.

HAIFA STREET

In Wednesday's Haifa Street operation, the U.S. military said "direct, indirect and air support fire assets were used in support of troops in contact from high rise buildings."

Two residents told Reuters they saw a large armored force of U.S. and Iraqi troops enter Haifa Street at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT). They said the shooting had died down by late afternoon.

The Muslim Scholars Association, a leading Sunni clerics group, condemned the raid as part of "a campaign of genocide" against Sunnis and said a number of buildings had been damaged and people killed.

Security sources said a helicopter owned by Blackwater, a U.S. security company, that crashed in the area on Tuesday was forced down after the pilot was shot dead.

Three others on board the aircraft, which had been guarding a diplomatic convoy on the ground, may have been shot on landing, they said, although other reports suggested they died when the aircraft crashed. A fifth person on a second Blackwater helicopter was also shot dead.

U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad paid his condolences to the security contractors, who helped protect U.S. embassy personnel, saying he had known them personally.

Gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Iraq's higher education minister, Abd Dhiab al-Ajili, on a highway in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, killing one of his guards and seriously wounding another, the minister told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington, and Ahmed Rasheed, Aseel Kami and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)

Collateral Damage in Somalia

The press typically reports little of these types of collateral damage and military sources always deny or downplay them. None of the high value Al Qaeda targets of the US mission seem to have been killed. The Ethiopian troops are supplied and trained by the US. Since Ethiopia is primarily a Christian country actions such as these will just confirm muslims in the view that there is war against Islam rather than terrorism.




U.S. Somalia air raids hit nomads, 70 dead - OxfamBy ReutersNAIROBI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Air attacks against fugitive Islamists in south Somalia in recent days have mistakenly targeted nomadic herdsmen gathering round fires, killing 70, British-based aid agency Oxfam said on Friday."Under international law, there is a duty to distinguish between military and civilian targets," Oxfam added, citing its local partner organisations in Somalia for the information.Washington sent a warplane into Somalia on Monday to try and take out what U.S. officials say are top al Qaeda suspects hiding with the Islamists.Ethiopia, which helped the interim government of Somalia oust rival Islamists from Mogadishu over the New Year, has also been carrying out air raids against the retreating fighters.While some Somali sources have reported scores of deaths, there has been no independent confirmation on the ground."Oxfam is receiving reports from its partner organisations in Somalia that nomadic herdsmen have been mistakenly targeted in recent bombing raids," Oxfam said in a statement released in Nairobi."According to the reports from local organisations in Afmadow district, bombs have hit vital water sources as well as large groups of nomads and their animals who had gathered round large fires at night to ward off mosquitoes."Further reports have also confirmed that bombings have claimed the lives of 70 people in the district."Since the open warfare started in late December, some 70,000 Somalis have fled their homes, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation, Oxfam said.