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'Even bride and groom died'
24/05/2004 07:15 - (SA)
Ramadi, Iraq - The bride arrives in a white pickup truck and is quickly ushered into a house by a group of women. Outside, men recline on brightly coloured silk pillows, relaxing on the carpeted floor of a large goat-hair tent as boys dance to tribal songs.
The videotape obtained on Sunday by Associated Press Television News captures a wedding party that survivors say was later attacked by US planes early on Wednesday, killing up to 45 people. The dead included the cameraman, Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, hired to record the festivities, which ended on Tuesday night before the planes struck.
The US military says it is investigating the attack, which took place in the village of Mogr el-Deeb about eight kilometres from the Syrian border, but that all evidence so far indicates the target was a safehouse for foreign fighters.
"There was no evidence of a wedding, no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief US military spokesperson in Iraq. "There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations, too."
But video shot a day after the attack shows fragments of musical instruments, pots and pans, and brightly coloured beddings used for celebrations, scattered around the bombed-out tent.
An AP reporter and photographer, who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing, were able to identify many people on the wedding party video, which runs for several hours.
Prominently displayed on the videotape was a stocky man with close-cropped hair playing an electric organ. Another tape, filmed a day later in Ramadi, showed the musician lying dead in a burial shroud - his face clearly visible and wearing the same tan shirt as he wore when he performed.
Kimmitt said US troops found rifles, machine guns, foreign passports, bedding, syringes and other items that suggested the site was used by foreigners infiltrating from Syria.
Kimmitt has denied finding evidence that any children died in the raid although a "handful of women" - perhaps four to six - were "caught up in the engagement".
"They may have died from some of the fire that came from the aircraft," he said on Friday.
However, an AP reporter obtained names of at least 10 children who relatives said had died. Bodies of five of them were filmed by APTN when the survivors took them to Ramadi for burial on Wednesday. Iraqi officials said at least 13 children were killed.
Four days after the attack, the memories of the survivors remain painful - as are their injuries.
"At about 03:00, we were sleeping and the planes started firing," said one of the mourners, who gave his name only as Bassem. "They fired more than 40 missiles. I was running. There are no fighters. These are lies. There's no resistance. Even the bride and the groom died."
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