[casi] FW: [IPT-reports] War Report - 27 March

["Rania Masri" <rania@DELETETHISnc.rr.com>]

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REPORT BY THE IRAQ PEACE TEAM (IPT) ON POSSIBLE WAR
CRIMES (AND RELATED INFORMATION) IN THE 2003 U.S.-LED
ATTACK ON BAGHDAD –  March 27, 2003

[NOTE : This reports aims to present accurate,
reliable and prompt information about Iraqi civilian
casualties and damage to Iraqi civilian infrastructure
inflicted by the U.S.-led forces. The reports will be
organized according to date with the most recent at
the top. Completely new reports will be presented in a
“NEW” section at the top. Individuals whose
photographs accompany this report will be marked with
an asterisk in the Report.]

NEW REPORTS

ALYARMOUK HOSPITAL – MARCH 26
On March 26, Cathy Breen and others visited with the
following victims at the Alyarmouk Hospital.

Amar*, a seven-year-old boy, had an emergency chest
tube to drain blood from multiple shell injuries.  His
mother, Hannah, died in the direct hit to their house
this morning. He is from a farming village on the
outskirts of Baghdad.

Mueen*, 8-years-old and the son of a farmer, had a
drainage tube due to a wound to the abdomen.  The
doctor showed the team a plastic bag holding parts of
his small intestine that had to be removed during
surgery in order to try and get to all of the
shrapnel.  His father died in that bombing. His
six-year-old brother, Ali, was wounded in the head.


Ten-year-old Rusel* was wounded in an explosion
outside her door.  The team saw the shrapnel in her
chest on an X-ray. She too had a chest tube.  Her
right hand was fractured.

ALYARMOUK HOSPITAL – MARCH 24
On March 24, Cathy Breen and others visited the
following victims at Alyarmouk Hospital.
Nada Adnan*, a fourteen-year-old high school student,
came in with a deep gash and fracture to her right
forehead.  She also had a hunk of shrapnel in her
upper thigh. Some of our folks were present when she
and her family were brought into the hospital.  Her
mother had to be restrained as she was so distraught.
A missile had crashed into her uncle’s home where they
were staying, causing the walls to collapse. Nada’s
eight-year-old sister had died as a result.

An elderly woman, Fatima, had fallen in fear during
the bombing and fractured her hip.  She had already
had surgery for the hip. Her ankle was in a cast and
her knee was wounded.

ABDULLAH HAAMID HASSAWI FAMILY
On March 27, visited the home of the Abdullah Haamad
Hassawi family in Al Tujjaar, a residential
neighborhood in North Baghdad. Next door to their
home, the team saw damage to windows of the Balquis
Secondary School for Girls. In the Hassawi family
home, the team saw rubble from walls on the second
floor roof patio in the courtyard below, as well as
hundreds of marks in the outer walls made from small,
uniform, cubed, metal pellets. In an upstairs room,
there was a large blood stained mattress on the floor.


Family members reported that Moneed, 25, and his
23-year-old wife, Sahar, and their 6-year-old son,
Quiser Muhweb, had been sitting together on that mat
when metal fragments from the bomb came in through the
window. These fragments broke the glass and hit and
injured them all, breaking the legs of the mother and
son. They were taken to the Al Nooman Hospital in the
Aldemia area.

The large number of pellet marks in the walls, from
top to bottom, but not on the floor of the patio and
downstairs courtyard, and the low level of damage done
to the building, suggest that a fragmentation bomb may
have exploded about eight feet above the roof patio
and sprayed pellets around  into the walls, and that
bomb fragments flew into the window, hitting the three
injured, and that the blast blew out the windows of
the school next door. This bomb may have been an
anti-personnel weapon. The tiny, but heavy, pellets
are currently being examined to determine if they are
made with depleted uranium.

NEW CAPTIONS

030326AmarAlYarmoukCB.jpg
Amar, 7 years old from Al Yusfia village, injured
March 26 (March 26)

030326MueenAlYarmoukCB.jpg
Mueen, 8 years old from Adora, injured March 22 (March
26)

030324NadaAdnanAlYarmoukCB.jpg
Nada Adnan, 14 years old, injured March 23 (March 24)

030326RuselSalemAtmasAlYarmoukCB.jpg
Rusel Salem Atmas, 10 years old, from Rosala (March
26)

030327Hassawi1JG-sm.JPG
Fragments from the weapon that hit the Hassawi home.

030327Hassawi2JG-sm.JPG
Holes in the wall from the weapon that hit the Hassawi
home.


++++++++++

AMENDED REPORTS

AL-SHAAB COMMERCIAL DISTRICT
Two weapons fell around noon on March 26 in the middle
of the commercial sector along the main street in the
Al-Shaab district of Baghdad about three blocks beyond
the Ministry of Trade shopping center. The two blasts
resulted in two shallow craters, about 3-4 feet deep
and 6 feet in diameter, one on either side of the
street, near the intersection. Though the craters were
shallow, the bombs projected a powerful horizontal
impact that reached over a very wide radius.

About fifteen vehicles were destroyed, transformed by
the powerful blasts into masses of twisted and burnt
metal. The two- and three-story buildings on both
sides of the street were blackened and damaged. The
team saw twisted metal in destroyed store fronts,
mangled cars along the street, and burned out
residential houses for a two block stretch. Ed Kinane
observed two cars with shredded tires. Most shops
along the street showed various degrees of damage,
with rubble within and without. Virtually no windows
were left intact in either the upstairs or the
downstairs levels.

Some businesses, including what was said to have been
a car repair shop on one corner and a restaurant on a
corner across the street, were left in shambles.
Cement debris covered the floor of the restaurant’s
outside dining area. Cement planters had been heavily
damaged. Inside the restaurant was a jumble of white
plastic chairs.

About seven storefronts down from the restaurant,
there was a small café. Muhammed, 36, and Atman, 30,
were two brothers who said that they had been working
in the café when the attack happened. They said nine
people, including women and children, but no soldiers,
were in the café at the time drinking tea. They
pointed out several holes in the wall from pellets or
shrapnel and said that another brother, Sadoon
Mucksin, 40, was injured in the left arm and taken to
Al Numaan Hospital. They said that five people living
upstairs above the café were injured and taken to the
hospital, but were then back home.

Sala Myeed, a civil engineer living in the
neighborhood, who was present at the time of the
blasts, told of a pregnant woman, Um Juana, who was
burned to death in her second floor apartment. Marwwan
Nasweer, a medical student, living in the next block
along that street, told of two men who were killed
while working in an electrical shop. Other people on
the street spoke of three men, Abu Hassan, 45 and
father of 5, Manikit Hamoud, 17, and Saliah Nouri, 28,
who were killed as they were working in the Edilme
Restaurant. Also mentioned were 36-year-old Sarif
Albari and his 11 year old son, Safe, killed in a car
repair shop, and three killed in a car: 17 year old
Safa Issan, 12 year old Marwan, and their father who
was driving

Reports indicate that at least 15 persons were killed
and at least fifty injured--all civilians, either
shoppers, merchants, pedestrians or residents living
above the stores on the ground floor.

CAPTIONS FOR AMENDED REPORTS

030327Al-Shaab1RT-sm.jpg
thru
030327Al-Shaab3RT-sm.jpg
The main street in the Al-Shaab district.


+++++++++++

SUMMARY OF IPT POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES REPORTS

March 27: An IPT visited the home of the Abdullah
Hamad Hassarri family in Al Tujjaar, a residential
neighborhood in North Baghdad. The team saw rubble
from walls on the second floor roof patio in the
courtyard below, as well as hundreds of marks in the
outer walls made from small, uniform, cubed, metal
pellets. In an upstairs room, there was a large blood
stained mat on the floor.  The blast injured all three
members of the family and broke the legs of the mother
and son. The large number of pellet marks in the
walls, from top to bottom, but not on the floor of the
patio and downstairs courtyard.

March 26: Cathy Breen reported visiting with three
children seriously wounded, two of whom had parents
who were killed.

March 26: Martin Edwards and others visited with a
five year old girl, Duha, who has a spine injury and a
paralyzed left leg and may never walk right again from
a bomb or missile that exploded nearby. Her sister,
Hawra, had some damage to the back of her body from
bomb fragments. Her mother, Hamda lost a finger and
sustained further shrapnel injuries to her hand and
arm.  Four additional family members were injured.

Al Qadisiyeh District:
On March 26, an IPT team visited a heavily residential
neighborhood in the Al Qadisiyeh district near the
AlYarmouk hospital. On one street, seven adjacent
two-story brick homes and two homes behind were hit by
a huge bomb on Sunday evening around 7 PM. Four of the
houses were flattened by the weapon, which left a huge
crater about 125 feet in diameter and more than 25
feet deep on the point of impact. Most of the homes
had not been occupied for a long time, and only two
persons were injured.

Al-Shaab district:
On March 26, IPT teams observed the middle of the
commercial sector along the main street in the
Al-Shaab district of Baghdad about three blocks beyond
the Ministry of Trade shopping center. This area
appeared to contain neither military nor government
facilities. The team observed two oblong cavities that
appeared to be where two bombs struck near the
intersection around noon on March 26. These craters
were about two feet deep and about six feet long.
Though the craters were shallow, the bombs projected a
powerful horizontal impact that reached over a very
wide radius. For a two-block stretch of two-story
buildings, the front of buildings on both sides of the
road were blackened and damaged, as was that of the
residential flats above. Reportedly, at least 15
persons were killed and more than fifty injured, most
in life threatening condition at Al Numaan Hospital.
About fifteen vehicles were destroyed, transformed by
the powerful horizontal blasts into masses of twisted
and burnt metal.

Naeemi Family:
The family home was hit by a bomb around 7.30 PM,
Saturday evening, March 22. The bomb hit the left side
of the house, making a huge hole in the wall of the
children’s room. The floor of the room caved in. No
injuries.

Nahrawaan Farm House:
The farm-house was hit by a bomb on Monday afternoon,
March 24 around 4 PM. Three people were killed on the
spot. Eight were injured. 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.

Karadat Miryam District:
One entire block that included three- and four-floor
buildings with commercial storefronts on the ground
floor and residential dwellings on the upper floors
had almost all of the windows and frames and the iron
gates that covered windows in these buildings knocked
out on all floors. At least some injuries likely
resulted from the tremendous blast(s) that caused this
extensive damage.

ALYARMOUK HOSPITAL: – MARCH 23
An IPT team visited with five victims. Injuries
included severed tendons, spinal injury that has made
her paraplegic, shrapnel in the chest and on the right
hand, shrapnel in the stomach, on the right hand and
on the right ear.




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