NEW YORK One day after quoting a Marine commander's claim that not a single civilian had been killed in the assualt on Fallujah, The New York Times on Saturday, as if responding to the challenge, came up with at least one example.
It also noted that this was "just one incident in which civilians were reported wounded or killed during the weeklong Fallujah offensive. While no neutral group has been able to enter the city to count casualties, officials of the International Red Cross in Baghdad estimate that as many as 800 civilians may have died."
Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commander of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, had made the statement on Thursday about the absence of civilian casualties.
The Times story Saturday by Edward Wong told of a Fallujah family trying to make a quick dash to safety in their car, to reach a house near a mosque on Nov. 12. A "barrage of bullets" from marine snipers and gunners in the mosque hit the car, killing a woman, seriously injuring her daughter, and slightly wounding three men.
The Marines, according to Wong, were operating under rules of engagement that allow them to respond to "unauthorized movement of civilian vehicles" that may constitute suicide bomb threats. But it also noted that the same rules tell marines to "spare civilians and civilian property, if possible."
According to Wong, after the shooting, one of the wounded men in the car emerged waving a white towel. Several marines and Iraqi soldiers raced out to check on the casualties, accompanied by a reporter and photographer for The New York Times.
"Don't shoot!" the man with the towel yelled. "I have a family with me. There are women in the car."
"Just shoot him," two Iraqi soldiers said, according to Wong. But the Americans held off.
A picture of the aftermath of the incident, by Times photographer Ashley Gilbertson, accompanies the story. There was no explanation of why the story did not run until eight days after the fatal incident.
E&P Staff
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