Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Raleigh (NC) News & Observer
December 28, 2006
Pg. 12
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Thirteen villagers were acquitted Wednesday of attacking U.S. troops with stones and eggs after an errant U.S. Tomahawk missile fell near their village three years ago.
The Turkish court ruled that the villagers' actions did not constitute a crime. Defense lawyer Seyhmus Ulek said the incident was "a democratic reaction against American soldiers."
About 75 villagers from the southeastern town of Sanliurfa hurled eggs and stones at a group of about a dozen U.S. soldiers going to retrieve pieces of the Navy-fired missile, which was intended for Iraq but crashed into an empty Turkish field in March 2003.
The villagers broke the windows of four Humvees and injured one soldier, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Turkey said at the time.
The Tomahawk missile was the third U.S.-fired missile to crash in Turkey that week.
Tomahawk missiles are fired from warships and submarines and have a range of nearly 1,000 miles. The soldiers who went to retrieve the missile came from Incirlik Air Force Base, a major base in southern Turkey that was used by the U.S. to launch operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States and Turkey are traditionally close allies and field the two largest armies in the NATO military alliance.
December 28, 2006
Pg. 12
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Thirteen villagers were acquitted Wednesday of attacking U.S. troops with stones and eggs after an errant U.S. Tomahawk missile fell near their village three years ago.
The Turkish court ruled that the villagers' actions did not constitute a crime. Defense lawyer Seyhmus Ulek said the incident was "a democratic reaction against American soldiers."
About 75 villagers from the southeastern town of Sanliurfa hurled eggs and stones at a group of about a dozen U.S. soldiers going to retrieve pieces of the Navy-fired missile, which was intended for Iraq but crashed into an empty Turkish field in March 2003.
The villagers broke the windows of four Humvees and injured one soldier, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Turkey said at the time.
The Tomahawk missile was the third U.S.-fired missile to crash in Turkey that week.
Tomahawk missiles are fired from warships and submarines and have a range of nearly 1,000 miles. The soldiers who went to retrieve the missile came from Incirlik Air Force Base, a major base in southern Turkey that was used by the U.S. to launch operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States and Turkey are traditionally close allies and field the two largest armies in the NATO military alliance.