{"article":{"id":99688,"heading":"U.S. occupation troops slay Iraqi couple","author":"peace dove","created":"2004-01-08 17:13:39","modified":"2005-08-15 02:47:21","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 09:47:21","article":"

U.S. Accused of Killing Iraqi Couple

By ALI AHMED, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. troops shelled a house after coming under fire in this hotbed of the anti-American insurgency, killing an Iraqi couple, witnesses said Wednesday.

No immediate comment was made by the U.S. military, despite telephone calls and e-mail messages to troops based in the restive town of Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Footage from Associated Press Television News showed a wall of collapsed concrete bricks and two walls splattered with blood where neighbors said Ahmed Hassan Farhoud, 37, and his wife Suham Omar, 28, were sitting when the house was hit by a shell. They said the couple's five children were in bed in an adjoining room and survived unhurt.

\"This is democracy? These corpses?\" angry neighbor Raad Majeed asked at the hospital, gesturing to the couple's remains on gurneys covered with bloody sheets. \"It's a crime against humanity.\"

Other neighbors said it appeared someone fired at the soldiers in the suburb Tuesday night, and that the troops, on a routine raid in the district, thought the fire had come from the Hassan household.

\"They just brought in their tank and fired at their house from 200 meters (yards) away,\" Majeed said. \"What did these people do wrong?\" <\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"Ahmed Hassan, 36, and his wife Suham Omar, 28, were slain by U.S. occupation troops who shelled the couple's house with tank fire after allegedly being shot at by resistance fighters. The couple leave behind five children aged between 1 and 12 years. A relative of the murdered innocents reacts as she walks through the rubble of Hassan's home in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad., Iraq Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004. So... Mr. Bush, where are those weapons of mass destruction you launched this war over? (AP Photo\/Khalid Mohammed) \r\n","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2004\/01\/victimized.jpg","filesize":"20.0 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2004\/01\/99688.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2004\/01\/victimized.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2004\/01\/victimized.jpgthumb.jpg"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":99698,"heading":"deadly fire at home","article":"Can you imagine the reaction in the US media if Arab troops from any country blew up a house with Israeli or American civililians in it and gave the excuse that they thought that shots had been fired from it? What barbarians! It shows we have to crush them once and for all! They don't have our Judeo-Christian reverence for life! They need our guardianship until they become civilized!\r\n Whoever gave the order to fire tank shells at that house should be put on trial. What this war needs is a Seymour Hersch, who broke the story of the My Lai massacre. Bush and his flunkies are the ones who should really be on trial, but if some lower-ranking bastard is held to account for murder perhaps some of the others will think twice the next time before using their weapons of mass destruction.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":99688,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-08 21:35:59","modified":"2004-01-08 21:35:59","fileurl":""},{"id":99702,"heading":"Hey Meyer London!","article":"There's somebody I want you to meet. Call's himself "Moyers":\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/chapelhill.indymedia.org\/news\/?author=11%3A55+am&comments=yes\r\n\r\nWhy don't your two make like a positron and and electron and go pair-annihilate?\n\n*** This comment was posted from an IP associated with a disruptive poster. The IP is 66.20.127.78","author":"anon","parent_id":99688,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-08 22:31:41","modified":"2004-01-08 22:31:41","fileurl":""},{"id":99703,"heading":"link corrections","article":"Wrong link Meyer, sorry about that. Here's the right one:\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/chapelhill.indymedia.org\/news\/?author=Moyers&comments=yes\r\n\r\nMoyers sends his regards................................................................................................\r\n\n\n*** This comment was posted from an IP associated with a disruptive poster. The IP is 66.20.127.78","author":"anon","parent_id":99688,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-01-08 22:33:41","modified":"2004-01-08 22:33:41","fileurl":""}]}