Iraq wedding film rebuts US on airstrike

BAGHDAD: A new video showing Iraqis singing and dancing at a desert wedding begged more questions on Monday about a US air strike last week that killed about 45 people.
The US military has insisted most of the dead were foreign guerrilla fighters who had slipped over the nearby Syrian border. Local people say the Americans massacred wedding guests.
The US military says troops found no signs of a wedding in the wreckage left at the remote hamlet of Mogr al- Deeb.
But a spokesman, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, conceded that six women were killed in the strike and a celebration may have been taking place: "Bad people have parties too," he said.
The film shows trucks racing across the desert — many of the dead came from the regional capital Ramadi — men dancing in a tent, children playing and a musician playing an electric organ. The same man later appeared dead in a shroud.
Ultimately the truth may count for less than the perception; many Iraqis, exasperated by 14 months of occupation and by a scandal over the abuse of prisoners by US soldiers, find it easy to believe a tale of American brutality or incompetence.
The top UN human rights official, Bertrand Ramcharan, said even if some of those at the house were involved in criminal activity, that was no excuse for killing so many people.
On Saturday, General Kimmitt said there was strong evidence of illegal activity at what he called a safe house for fighters.
He said no children were killed, though footage of funerals taken by an Arab televisionon showed at least one child being buried.
Meanwhile, 18 Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded in fighting between US troops and militia loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr in Sadr City in Baghdad, hospital sources said on Monday.