'The American military has officially claimed the 64th Armored Regiment of the US Third Infantry Division killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqis during a three-hour rampage through southwestern Baghdad on April 5. In the aftermath of the assault, the Red Cross reported the city’s hospitals filling with hundreds of wounded, both military and civilian, and morgues receiving dozens of bodies.
'A dispatch posted on the New York Times site April 6 reported: “This was not a hurried drive-by through hostile territory, but a three-hour journey along two of the city’s major arteries, bringing the soldiers into contact with thousands of Iraqi paramilitary and other fighters... The M1 [Abram] tanks and M2 Bradley fighting vehicles left a trail of destruction, blowing up 30 Iraqi trucks, one tank and one armored personnel carrier...”
'The Washington Post reported: “US forces killed between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqis during Saturday’s show of force, which drew fierce but futile resistance from Iraqi soldiers and militiamen regarded as President Saddam Hussein’s last line of defense.”
'Troops of the 64th Armored described the attack to the New York Times as “a blistering gauntlet of death and destruction that engulfed civilians as well as Iraqi fighters”. According to the Times: “The Iraqi fighters... fired from streets, from groves of trees, from highway overpasses. Many mingled with the civilians caught up in the unexpected armored thrust. Some people ran. Others waved white clothes or held up their hands.” At the airport, a US trooper stated: “People were lying all over the side of the road. I couldn’t even count how many.”
'The reported American casualties were one dead and several wounded.
'The discrepancy in casualty figures is itself sufficient proof that the actions of the 64th Armored Regiment amounted to a slaughter of defenseless Iraqi soldiers and civilians. From the safety of their heavily armored tanks and protected by US aircraft circling overhead, the officers and personnel of the unit spent three hours gunning down whoever, and whatever, came in their path. The operation’s only purpose was to inflict death, destruction and terror on the people of Baghdad.'
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/bagd-a07.shtml
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