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POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES IN THE 2003 U.S.-LED
ATTACK ON BAGHDAD
March 26,2003
NORTH BAGHDAD RESIDENTIAL-COMMERCIAL DISTRICT
On March 26 at 3:00 p.m., Kathy Kelly and an Italian
journalist, Juliana, drove to a section in north
Baghdad because Juliana had just learned (through a
Reuters report) that a market place had been bombed
near the Ministry of Trade shopping center. About
three blocks beyond the shopping center, they saw a
two-block stretch of two-story buildings on both sides
of the road that were blackened and damaged, but
showed no evidence of having been directly hit by a
bomb targeting a specific building. They counted
thirteen cars that were completely demolished. There
were two shallow craters on either side of the
shoulder of the intersection. Another journalist
suggested that the bomb may have been an
anti-personnel bomb. The bomb hit at approximately
1:00 p.m. today.
NAEEMI FAMILY HOME
On March 25, several IPT members, including Jooneed
Jeeroburkhan and others, visited the two-story yellow
brick house of the Naeemi family, in the Al Khadra
district of East Baghdad, a heavily residential
neighborhood. The house had been hit by a bomb around
7.30 PM, Saturday evening, on the third day of
continuous US bombing. The bomb hit the left side of
the house, making a huge hole in the wall of the
children's room. The two children are brothers aged
nine and seven. The floor of the room caved in. Only
some of the iron rods inside the concrete were left
hanging over the room below.
Bricks and debris littered the adjacent plot, covering
the vegetable garden. Two banana trees were chopped by
the blast. The windshield of a red car parked in front
of the house was blown to pieces. Inside the house,
potted plants still rested on the steps of the
concrete staircase. But books and toys from the
damaged rooms were piled together in a corner at the
top of the stairs. Broken wooden beds and other
furniture had been placed in front of the house to
enable clean up of the debris, especially shattered
glass.
According to Samir Mahmood Ahmad, 60, whose adjacent
house had suffered huge cracks in its walls, his
family and the Naeemis, about 15 people in all, were
together chatting in another room when the bomb hit.
Mrs Ahmad and Mrs Naeemi are sisters. "We all managed
to rush out through the door. Luckily no one was
injured, but the children are in a state of shock.
They panic at the least noise. My brother in law has
taken them to live with relatives and with other
children," said Samir.
Debris from the bombs had already been taken away by
army security, "in case they contained radioactive
material," witnesses said.
NAHRAWAAN FARM HOUSE
On March 25, several IPT members visited, including
Jooneed Jeeroburkhan and others, visited a farm house
in the Nahrawaan district, near the Diyala bridge to
the north-east of Baghdad. The farm-house was hit by a
bomb on Monday afternoon, around 4:05 PM, Day 5 of the
bombing raids and US invasion of Iraq. Three people
were killed on the spot. One was an eight-year-old
girl named Fateha Ghazzi, a newly-wed sixteen-year-old
bride, Nada Abdallah, and a twenty-year old woman, the
sister of the lady of the house.
Eight were injured, hit by shattered glass, shrapnel
and flying debris. They were suffering from severe
lacerations on the head, arms, legs, chest, and on the
sides, according to Dr April Hurley, of the IPT, who
was present in the emergency ward of Baghdad's Al
Kindi hospital when they were brought in. She returned
to the hospital on Tuesday to visit the victims and
compile facts about them. "The young groom, in his
late 20's, could not stop crying, not from his
injuries but from the loss of his young wife," said Dr
Hurley. "A young boy, Amer, is among the injured but
he will pull through," she added.
According to the neighbours, who rushed in as we
arrived to visit the site on Tuesday, the house
belonged to farmer Ajmi Abdullah Ahmad, who was
hosting two Baghdadi families who had come to get some
rest from the US bombings of the city. One of them was
the newly-wed couple, who had come for their
honeymoon. Ahmad Ajmi, the seventeen-year-old son of
the farmer, was the only one to escape unscathed from
the explosion. He said he was on the dirt road that
runs in front of the house, high above the surrounding
fields, when the bomb hit. "It was 4.05 PM and
everybody was having tea in the living room on the
ground floor after the mid-afternoon prayers. I heard
the blast, turned around and saw the top floor crumble
and debris flying in a cloud of dust. Then I heard the
shrieks," he said, still shaking from the experience.
A neighbor, Kahtaan Hassan Salmaan, said that Iraqi
anti-aircraft artillery had been firing and had
probably hit a US plane on a bombing raid. "Another
plane flowing the first one then dropped three bombs,
and one scored a direct hit on the house, the other
two falling in the fields farther away," he said. The
roof of a stable beside the house collapsed, killing
the cow that was tethered inside.
Traces of dried blood from the victims dot the path
from the house to the parking space in front where
they were placed in the vehicles that drove them to Al
Kindi Hospital. The wooden coffins made to carry the
dead still lie on the blood-caked back of a pick-up
truck.
Debris from the bombs had already been taken away by
army security, "in case they contained radioactive
material," witnesses on both sites said. At this site,
one small square aluminium box with holes in it had
the word VOLEX marked on the inside.
KARADAT MIRYAM MIXED RESIDENTIAL-COMMERCIAL
On March 24, several IPT members were taken on a tour
of sites that have been bombed recently. These sites
included one entire block in the Karadat Miryam
district that included three- and four-floor buildings
with commercial storefronts on the ground floor and
residential dwellings on the upper floors. No military
or governmental sites were noticed nearby. Almost all
of the windows and frames and the iron gates that
covered windows in these buildings had been knocked
out on all floors. At least some injuries likely
resulted from the tremendous blast(s) that caused this
extensive damage
HADY AL-KHADRA TWO-STORY HOME
On March 24, an IPT team went to a home that had been
hit by what appeared to be a missile. The house was a
2-story home in the Hady Al-Khadra neighborhood. The
weapon came through the roof and landed in a
second-floor room that appeared to be a bedroom. There
was what seemed to be a picture on the wall of some
female pop star. The team was unable to meet any of
the family who were in the home at the time of the
attack; they are now staying with family members. A
brother of the owner gave us an account, which was
recorded in Arabic and will be translated later. He
said the weapon hit about 7:30pm on Saturday, March
22, as the family was eating dinner, or getting ready
for dinner. There were no serious injuries even though
there were 8 people in the home at the time.
ALYARMOUK HOSPITAL - MARCH 23
On March 23, several IPT members, including Doug
Johnson, Robert Turcotte, and Jooneed Jeeroburkhan
went to the Alyarmouk hospital. This university
teaching hospital, one of the largest and most modern
in Iraq, is one of three medical centers prepared by
the authorities to receive victims of the American
attack; the two others are Al Mansur and Al Kindi
hospitals. Many foreign doctors and surgeons,
Americans included, are in Bagdad to offer their
services to these hospitals in the war context.
One of the patients was Rahab Wedad Mohammad, age
25, who had just come out of surgery under general
anesthesia. Her right cheek was swollen and her right
forearm was heavily bandaged. According to the lady
doctor, she had severed tendons which they had to sew
back, together with nerves and blood vessels, in the
women's section of the hospital.
According to answers to our questions, Rahab was at
her home, in the residential district of Hayy Jamiya,
when a bomb hit nearby. It was Saturday night, on the
3rd day of US bombing, and she was hit by shrapnel
that severed the tendons on her right arm.
Zaha Seheil lay quietly on a bed opposite. She is six
years old. The doctor said that she was hit in the
back, suffering spinal injury that has made her
paraplegic.
In the men's section, Rusul Salim Abbas, 10 years old,
had been hit by shrapnel in the chest and on the right
hand. That was on Friday night, when the bombing was
the heaviest for four hours continuously. , says Salim, his
father, seated on the edge of his bed.
Salah Mehdi, aged 33, was walking on the street
Saturday night in the residential district of Amariya
when a missile exploded nearby. , he says with
difficulty. He had been hit by shrapnel in the
stomach, on the right hand and on the right ear.
On the next bed, Omar`Ali, 12 years old, was one of 12
members of his family injured Friday night in the
residential district of Al Shorta when a bomb hit near
their house. There also also Majid Mahmoud, aged 57
and father of two, injured the very first night of
bombing, and Hussein Jassim Fleh, aged 36 and father
of a young daughter, injured Saturday night in the
back, and on both arms and legs.
Was the shrapnel from US missiles and bombs, or from
falling Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery? Given the
delicate hospital conditions in which these visits
were made, and the lack of expert ballistics evidence,
it is difficult to tell what actually caused these
injuries, and scores of others in hospitals across the
country,. commented an Iraqi TV
reporter filming the wounded.
Members of the delegation were able to take photos of
some of the injuries.
RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD ABOUT TWO BLOCKS WEST OF 14
JULY BRIDGE.STREET
On March 22, Stewart Vriesinga and Wade Hudson toured
a residential neighborhood about two blocks west of 14
July Bridge.Street, between Amar Bin Yasir Street and
Jamiaa Street. They drove by an
eight-to-twelve-foot-deep crater in the middle of a
wide, divided street that connected these latter two
streets. Traffic in the westerly direction was
blocked. They saw large gardens on both sides of this
crater. No building was within eyesight of the crater.
Mr. Mohammed, IPT's principal driver, said that the
gardens were not public parks, but private gardens
associated with private homes, one of which is owned
by an uncle of his. Around the corner on Jamiaa
Street, many smaller homes had had all of their front
windows blown out, presumably by a blast from the bomb
that created the crater. Although this incident does
not suggest either the strong possibility of civilian
injuries or major damage to civilian infrastructure,
it does illustrate once again that some bombs either
do not hit their intended target or are directed to
non-military targets.
MIXED RESIDENTIAL-COMMERCIAL
On March 22, April Hurley, Zehira Houfani, and Robert
Turcotte saw, around the corner from a street with
buildings that appeared to be governmental offices, a
whole block of mixed residential-commercial units with
almost all of their windows knocked out.
NOTE: Photos supporting a number of these reports can be sent as well. They
will hopefully also soon be posted on a website (www.iraqpeaceteam.org or
www.nowar-paix.org).
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