Fallujah mosque hit by rockets fired by U.S. Marines

Most American news agencies reported primarily on the killing of some 12 American troops in Iraq yesterday.

There is no doubt that the American deaths are tragic. In eerie reminiscence of the Vietnam War, American soldiers are dying in ever-increasing numbers and frequency for a war that they have no interest in.

Yet while the governments of the United States and Great Britain try to sell wholly unbelievable stories about how much better Iraqis feel since the invasion a year ago, attention to the mounting civilian casualties is scant.

The web site www.iraqbodycount.net, which gathers its figures from major news sources, puts the range of civlian deaths resulting either from direct action by the occupying forces or the effects of a toppled government and a country under military occupation between 8827 and 10,677. That is before the shameful incident reported below, one which will echo with all too much familiarity for those of you who have been following the years of Israeli occupation.

As even some Republicans are turning on George Bush for this tragic and failed enterprise, because of the mounting American death toll, we need to remind our neighbors that American losses, tragic as they are, are simply not comparable to the death toll, destruction, and suffering this war and occupation have visited upon the people of Iraq. — MP

U.S. Marines in a fierce battle for the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah fired rockets that hit a mosque compound filled with worshippers Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to nearly all of Iraq.

April 7, 11:20 am EST. A major atrocity is unfolding in Fallujah and Ramadi. Everyone tells us that the towns are cordoned off, with electricity and water cut and no supplies allowed in. A mosque in Fallujah was just destroyed, with 40 dead. The total dead in fighting for the two towns is 30 American soldiers and over 150 Iraqis — probably far over, given the difficulties of counting. A fitting response to the killing of the four Blackwater Security mercenaries. Of course, if the condition of siege continues much longer, the death toll even among noncombatants in Fallujah and Ramadi will skyrocket. read more>