BAGHDAD (AP) - A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday - one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months. The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.

American forces have applied fierce and determined pressure on militants, especially al-Qaida in Iraq, since the full contingent of additional U.S. troops arrived June 15. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has recently confronted top American commander Gen. David Petraeus about what he sees as overly aggressive U.S. tactics that harm innocent civilians, according to Iraqi officials.

The military statement detailing Thursday’s air and ground assault said soldiers were acting on intelligence reports about an al-Qaida meeting in the Lake Tharthar region. The southern reaches of the big, man-made lake are about 50 miles northwest of the capital.

The American account said U.S. surveillance confirmed “activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target.” The first air attack killed “four terrorists,” said the statement.

Full Story Here:
9 Children Killed in U.S. Raid in Iraq

Oh MY Gawd! The horror of it all, those murdering U.S. troops, how dare they attack those innocent children and peace loving goat herders just going about their daily toil to survive, the shame, the tragedy, the outrage of it all, we must have investigations, we have to know, was Blackwater USA in the area?? Can we blame it on them??

How did that sound?? Did I get the right inflection in there?? I’ve been practicing my feigned outrage and indignation for blog posts, and I think I got it down too…

Look, this was an air and ground assault in a somewhat urban area, people are going to die when things like this happen, THAT is a fact of life, I’m not trying to be a heartless bastard, I’m just a realist, I understand what happens in a confrontation like this, and I also understand that the insurgents will deliberately use civilians as human shields as well, and there is one other point I need to make here, the insurgents have been known to lie about the casualties suffered by civilians, it’s called propaganda, and they KNOW how to use it…

The only thing that surprises me about this story is that they didn’t say our guys blew up an orphanage along with a school for the deaf and blind that was holding a fund raiser to buy a new boiler so the little kiddies could stay warm this winter, and they were having a prayer service when WE attacked the innocent little tykes too…

OK, so I was being a a heartless bastard… Sue me…

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