The above is from AlHayat, which adds the American boilerplate about having fired only after “having perceived hostile intent” on the part of the people whose house they had broken into, and that they were hunting for a person suspected of being an AlQaeda financier based on “intelligence”. The piece in AlHayat, which is by no stretch of the imagination “anti-American,” adds this:
A resident of Baiji condemned the killings and the butchery that are committed from time to time by the American forces. Yunis Martada, owner of a shop selling refreshments near the house (in question) said this was not the first time the American forces have committed a butchery: “Every day there is a new butchery”.
Xinhuanet says a statement issued by the provincial council included this:
The Council of the Province of Salahaddin condemned the killing by the American forces of the Governor’s son. In a statement, the council described the incident as an indication of the contempt on the part of the Americans for the lives of innocent Iraqis and their lack of verification of intelligence that comes to them, before acting on it”.
According to the NYT, the council’s statement said the operation shows how the Americans “disregard the souls of Iraqi citizens”, and instead of talking to people like the store owner who regards American atrocities as notorious, the NYT merely quotes an official to the effect “there have been at least two similar attacks by the Americans in the area,” painting for Americans, as usual, a picture of the ephemeral and somewhat abstract nature of this kind of Iraqi complaints. Not that the netroots (with one or two exception) has been terrifically better in this.
