posted April 20, 2003 at 2:43 p.m. MDTThe heroic saga of Saving Private Lynch? (Regular readers will know I've written about the courageous couple who reported Lynch's location.)
Iraqis Say Lynch Raid Faced No Resistance Hassan and other doctors said they were on duty that evening, when "we heard a big thumping nearby the hospital. And the sound of helicopters -- not just one. Then someone from the hospital, a colleague, said soldiers were entering the hospital from the back door."
"We agreed to stay in one room, not to intervene," Hassan said. The soldiers broke down several doors in the hospital before locating Lynch ..."
They had to break down a buncha doors looking for the young lady? Odd ... they knew where she was. And Lynch apparently sustained injuries when her vehicle overturned ... dang, first you make a wrong turn inro enemy territory, then hit the ditch. Yikes!
But life for some involves no heroic rescues: ""I was shot by the Americans," said Akeel Kadhim, 20, a student whose left leg was amputated. "I was running to another wounded person, trying to save him. . . . We are innocent. We were not fighting. We were not resisting. I tried to save an innocent person. Why did they shoot me?" In the next bed, Hassan Aoda, 28, said he was riding on a bus with 28 other Iraqis when a U.S. armored vehicle opened fire on them at a road crossing on March 25. "I don't know why they shot at us," he said, lying on his back and nursing a fractured left shoulder and arm. "I'm an innocent person. I wasn't fighting the Americans."
As BadAttitude puts it: "The Pentagon figured, correctly, that their best play under the circumstances was to shut up. If they sat on the truth, the press could be counted on to print the legend."
The TimesOnline version reveals the cowboy nature of the "liberators": "Four doctors and two patients, one of whom was paralysed and on an intravenous drip, were bound and handcuffed as American soldiers rampaged through the wards, searching for departed members of the Saddam regime. An ambulance driver who tried to carry Private Lynch to the American forces close to the city was shot at by US troops the day before their mission.
... The Iraqi intelligence officers told the hospital that Private Lynch would soon be transferred to Baghdad, a prospect that terrified her. After her condition stabilised, they ordered Dr Harith to transfer Jessica to another hospital.
Instead he told the ambulance driver to deliver her to one of the American outposts that had already been established on the ouskirts of the city. "But when he reached their checkpoint, the Americans fired at him," he said. "[I guess the troops wanted to wait til there were cameras or reporters around.]
(Kinda reminds me of the hopped-up junky flying the fighter who dropped a bomb on our troops in Afghanistan [4 dead; 8 wounded]. Word is that his superiors have said they noticed. Geez, ain't that skeery?!)
