ct 21, 8:14 PM (ET)
By STEVEN R. HURST
BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military said its forces killed an estimated 49 militants during a dawn raid to capture an Iranian-linked militia chief in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave, one of the highest tolls for a single operation since President Bush declared an end to active combat in 2003.
Iraqi police and hospital officials, who often overstate casualties, reported only 15 deaths including three children. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said all the dead were civilians.
Al-Dabbagh said on CNN that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had met with the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, to protest the action.
Associated Press photos showed the bodies of two toddlers, one with a gouged face, swaddled in blankets on a morgue floor. Their shirts were pulled up, exposing their abdomens, and a diaper showed above the waistband of one boy's shorts. Relatives said the children were killed when helicopter gunfire hit their house as they slept.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071022/D8SDUNMG0.html
I posted this article to show two things concerning the previous discussion on Blackwater.
1) Don't always rely on what is printed in the media - yes they have a habit of overstating thier losses.
2) The government - it denounces all action in which a civilian is killed, regardless of the end result.
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I am not advocating collateral damage as being acceptable. I have two toddlers, and if either were harmed there would be vengence.
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