The breaking news that I found on three different news websites was about the joint US-Iraqi military operation that took place today(Wednesday, Sept. 15) in Fallujah. The three news websites are CNN.com, gulfnews.com, and news.yahoo.com. For the most part all of the stories were basically the same. All three said that now since Sept. 1, U.S. troops are now in an "advise-and-assist role". This meaning that our military is not planning these operations, however, we are helping the Iraq military in their operations. The sites also acknowledged that this village was said to house rebel insurgents and Al-Qaida linked militants, which was the reason for the raid. Also, the deadly shooting broke out from the US-Iraqi troops in response to the members of the village fighting back against the raid. This is where the news sites very from one another. The one main difference between these sites is the estimated death toll of this firefight. CNN.com writes that seven people were killed and a woman was wounded on this early Wednesday morning. Gulfnews.com states that at least seven civilians and two Iraqi soldiers were killed during the shootout, totaling nine. Yahoo.com writes that at least six people were killed. Clearly there is a bit of a discrepancy in the death toll. Now, as to which one is correct I do not know. I looked on a few other sites and they all were a bit different, but they consistently hovered around those three numbers, and a couple at seven. All three numbers could be right given on the time when the news came out. For example, if Yahoo got there news first, may be at that time only six were confirmed dead, then CNN got theirs second when the seventh had died, and finally Gulfnews getting the news last when nine had passed. That can be a stretch(and probably is), but you never know. Over time I am sure they will get to the exact number, until then I don't think anyone but actual witnesses will know, if even them.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/09/15/iraq.falluja.unrest/index.html
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/joint-us-iraq-raid-kills-nine-in-fallujah-1.682379
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100915/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
WOW! Our troops have not left and the war is still the same to me. Good coverage, I did not hear about this and I'm glad I read your post.
ReplyDeleteGood choice Drew. It's funny how "advise and assist" = help with raids...that seems like it could be defined as combat to me.
ReplyDeleteI did not know about this either. I feel like death tolls for any incident are not accurate when the story breaks. When the VT shooting happened i remember watching the story and seeing 1 dead for hours but they really did not know for a while.
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