ANOTHER BOGUS MASSACRE STORY FROM IRAQ!
** Updated (Wednesday AM) The Soccer Field Reports Were All Wrong!
Reuters reports:
A report of a bomb killing 18 people, mostly children, on Tuesday in the Iraqi city of Ramadi was wrong and stemmed from confusion over a similar attack the day before, police officials and residents said on Wednesday.
The reported killing of so many children drew swift condemnation from the president and the prime minister, but Colonel Tariq al Theibani, security adviser for Anbar province, said the report of the bombing on Tuesday was wrong.
“It happened the day before yesterday,” he told Reuters.
He said 18 people, many of them children, were killed on Monday by a suicide car bomb, as previously reported. The U.S. military had put the death toll from that attack at 15.
Allahpundit thinks this is no big deal… that there is no lesson here.
Maybe he is satisfied that there are imaginary reports coming out of Iraq. However, we’ve all seen how this drip, drip, drip of bad news weighs on America. We all know how this plays out. The masses start believing that Iraq is an unwinnable quagmire. It doesn’t matter how much evidence you have that contradicts this picture. People start believing the cut and runners. People start talking about giving up.
Forgive me for being concerned about the future of Iraq if America decides to haul ass.
Forgive me for not wanting to witness the slaughter that is waiting for the Iraqis if the US leaves.
You’ll just have to forgive me for believing that bogus stories are a big deal.
** Updated and Bumped: (10:00 PM CST) The US is denying the media reports that 18 children were killed in a blast in Ramadi on Tuesday!
MNF-I released a report earlier that conflicts with what the media was reporting that 18 children were killed in an explosion at a soccer field in Ramadi on Tuesday.
Initial reports said it was a roadside car bomb next to a soccer field.
Then.. the media reported that it was a suicide car bomber.
Then… the police said the attack may have been on Monday.
Then… the media reported that 18 boys playing soccer were killed in the attack.
Then… it was 16 children and two women that were killed in the blast.
Then… there was a report that it was 12 children and 6 women who were killed in the blast.
Then… the media reported that it may have been a controlled explosion by the US with minor injuries!
Then… the US is denying that anyone was killed in the Ramadi blast on Tuesday!
Now… The media admits the reports were all wrong!
It looks like the MSM stringers in Iraq may have imagined a ghastly soccer blast.
This was the only international picture released earlier of the bomb blast in Ramadi where initial reports said that 18 children were killed playing soccer…
Now it looks like the story may have been exaggerated:
A man and a child walk past the site of a suicide truck bomb attack in Ramadi, Iraq, February 27, 2007. (Stringer/Reuters)
What was described earlier as a slaughter on a Ramadi soccer field that killed 18 children is now being described as a controlled explosion with no casualties!
The BBC reports:
There are confusing reports about at least one explosion in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi.
Iraqi officials said 18 people, most of them children, had been killed in a blast near a football pitch.An American spokesman told Reuters news agency that US forces had carried out a controlled explosion in Ramadi, also close to a football field.
The official said there were injuries, but no deaths. It was not clear if both reports refered to the same incident.
However, the chief American military spokesman in Iraq, Lt Colonel Christopher Garver, later said he thought there had been “two separate incidents” in Ramadi.
Iraqi police said most of the victims were aged 10 to 15 and had gathered to play football when a bomb went off.
US military spokesman Jeff Pool said he was unaware of a bomb attack in the city.
He told Reuters a controlled blast by US soldiers near a football pitch in Ramadi slightly wounded 30 people, including nine children.
HotAir questioned the reports earlier.
Reuter’s update on the blast echoes the BBC.
The Asssociated Press is still carrying the original headline with a revamped story from earlier- “Ramadi Bombing Kills 18 Boys”
Of course if the bombing was true, it would not be the first time that terrorists in Iraq targeted children playing soccer… by a long shot!
Update: 5:00 PM CST- The US continues to cast doubt on the claims of a massacre.
