Civilian deaths stoke Iraqis' resentment
Bitterness may widen resistance. The boy held two blankets, so he and his identical twin brother, Moustafa, could curl up together for the night, one of their favorite summer habits. Mohammed had just reached the top, when he turned to watch the military maneuvers on the street below: American soldiers patrolling with rifles. One soldier looked up in the darkness and saw a figure on the roof, watching him.
A single shot exploded into the air, slamming into Mohammed's chest.
In the chaos that followed, Mohammed's mother, Wafa Abdul Latif, recalls dragging her son inside and holding the screaming boy as his blood poured onto the floor. She says Mohammed was struggling to breathe when a group of American soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division slammed through the front door and pushed her aside to search the house for hostile gunmen.
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Some of the bereaved Iraqis say they are pained that U.S. soldiers have not offered apologies or compensation, or even attempted to comfort them. Iraqi traditions generally call for monetary compensation when a murder occurs, and among several tribes, a retaliatory killing is expected. [San Francisco Chronicle]
I suspect the reporter wasn't aware of it, but pretty much any size US military unit, even a rifle squad, would have a medic either on the spot or just seconds away. If the soldiers had wanted to, they certainly could have at the very least made a very good effort to save the boy. Instead, as the article relates, a neighbor tried to drive Mohammed to the hospital, only to be turned back at a US checkpoint.
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