IRAQ: Wounded Iraqi 6-year-old recalls masked attackers near Baquba and Operation Steel Curtain continues in western Iraq for second day.

Record ID: 324650

  • Title: IRAQ: Wounded Iraqi 6-year-old recalls masked attackers near Baquba and Operation Steel Curtain continues in western Iraq for second day.
  • Date: 6th November 2005
  • Summary: MOURNERS FOLLOWING VEHICLE WITH COFFIN
  • Embargoed: 21st November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA5M13BOQZAYNBGEQJRP2CXLU0I
  • Story Text: Bandaged, bruised and with a gash above one eye, 6-year-old Hussein recalled in a faltering voice how masked men slaughtered 13 of his family as they drove home in a minibus from a holiday visit to relatives. Among the dead was a baby just 12 days old. In the latest apparently sectarian attack in Iraq, gunmen opened fire on the minibus carrying 15 members of an extended family of Shi'ite Muslims on Saturday (November 5) evening, during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. "They were standing on the side of the road, then they walked behind us, two in front and two behind," said Hussein as a doctor checked his wounds in Balad Ruz hospital, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad on Sunday (November 6). The young boy had sustained bullet wounds to his stomach and his side. In a nearby bed was the only other survivor of the attack, his 18-year-old cousin Saad Shamil, who was also shot in the stomach. Around a dozen more relatives gathered outside the hospital morgue, weeping over bodies still dressed in bloodstained clothes, one laid out on the ground wrapped in a blanket. The bodies of four children, including a tiny baby, were squeezed together on a single metal shelf designed for an adult. Police Captain Ahmed Abdul Satar said police had found the minibus "riddled with bullet holes". A mourner who declined to give his name for fear of retaliation said the family members were killed because they were Shi'ites. Hussein's parents and the other dead were buried in Nahrawn, southern Baghdad, on Sunday as doctors tended to the two survivors who remained in critical condition, the latest of tens of thousands of Iraqi victims of violence since the March 2003 U.S. invasion. U.S. forces working with Iraqi troops met sporadic resistance on the second day of their major offensive against Sunni Arab insurgents as they tried to secure lawless areas in western Iraq near the Syrian border to make it safe for voters in next month's election. "Yesterday approximately 2500 coalition forces and 1000 Iraqi army soldiers began Operation Steel Curtain in the region of al Qaim. Our objectives are to restore security along the Iraqi Syrian border and to destroy the al Qaeda in Iraq terror network operating throughout al Husayba," Brigadier General Donald Alston said during a press conference on Sunday. Operation Steel Curtain is one of the biggest in a series of offensives this year in the Sunni Arab western province of Anbar, which has been a focal point of the insurgency against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government and its U.S. backers. "The Iraqi and coalition forces have encountered sporadic resistance mostly small arms fire and IED's from al Qaeda in Iraq led terrorists throughout the city. The combination of six bombs and mines have been discovered so far and a suspected suicide car bomb was destroyed this morning by a coalition airstrike. The total of nine coalition airstrikes have been conducted on enemy strong points throughout the day. Buildings occupied by terrorists firing on coalition and Iraqi soldiers are the only buildings that have been targeted," added Alston. Troops closed roads and clamped down on movement around the frontier town of Husayba, near Qaim. The prominent Sunni leader and the head of Iraqi National Front, Salih al Mutlaq, condemned the operation and called on the coalition forces to stop the offensive immediately. "For the fourth time in two months they are bombing and destroying the cities of Qaim, Husayba, Karabila and Dulueiya and without any reason, hundreds of children and innocent people have been killed. We are condemning this aggression against our people and calling on coalition forces to stop this operation immediately," Mutalq said during a press conference in Baghdad. U.S. commanders have warned that the weeks leading up to the December 15 election, likely to be fought along largely sectarian and ethnic lines, could see a rise in bloodshed.
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