Another big update from Centcom. Recall my Update I where I link to this article by the AP: (big h/t to Riehl World View for unearthing the story)

Separately, police and witnesses said U.S. soldiers shot and killed 11 civilians and wounded five on Sunday night in the Baghdad suburb of Husseiniya. The U.S. military said it had no record of any American military operation in the area.

“We were sitting inside our house when the Americans showed up and started firing at homes. They killed many people and burned some houses,” said one of the witnesses, a man with bandages on his head who was being treated at Imam Ali Hospital in the Shiite slum of Sadr City. The police and witnesses spoke with Associated Press Television News on condition of anonymity to protect their own security.

On Monday, about 250 people attended a memorial service outside the hospital’s morgue for the 11 victims, saying it was being conducted in the slum because the dead had been followers of the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The cleric and his Madhi Army militia are both based in Sadr City.

Centcom just sent me this update:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Sir –

Reference the clarification requested on the story by AP below.

Anti-Iraqi Forces opened fire, targeting civilians in the al-Husseiniya area. 10 civilians were killed and six wounded at 11 p.m. Nov. 26. The incident was reported by the Iraqi Police through the Joint National Operations Center (a civilian matter relayed to the Coalition for tracking purposes). There was no Coalition involvement.

v/r

Capt. J. Elaine Hunnicutt (USAF)

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Joint Operations Center
PAO OIC Nights

So the AP prints a report in which “police” are quoted as saying the US fired on the civilians but the Iraqi police reported NO coalition involvement to the MoI.

Another example of attempting to make news by our MSM.

UPDATE 2200hrs PST

Dan from Riehl World View has done some great workup on the writer of this bogus AP piece, one SAMEER N. YACOUB, and boy does he have a history. He was writer who wrote glowingly about Saddam and was present when the contractors were hung years ago:

Dan is all over it, check it out.

UPDATE II 2315hrs PST

I am so very honored: (click to enlarge)

I am deeply honored Mr. Muir!

UPDATE III 11/28/06 0900hrs PST

Both Michelle and I have sent requests to the AP asking them for their response and as of yet neither of us have received any. Nada, zip.

Not surprising.

Back to work today for me so posting will probably be light.

Curt

See author page

Ok, I broke down and started a new thread for updates. The original one is just getting waaaayyyy too long. If your just coming into this story go here to get all the facts on how a bogus Iraqi Police Officer has been supplying quotes to the AP.

I found this transcript from MSNBC in which they refer to the Burning Six bogus story as one reason why they have now decided to call the Iraq situation a “civil war”: (via ThinkProgress, a lefty site)

The news from Iraq is becoming grimmer every day. Over the long holiday weekend bombings killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. And six Sunni men were doused with kerosene and burned alive. Shiite muslims are the majority, but Sunnis like Saddam Hussein ruled that country until the war. Now, the battle between Shiites and Sunnis has created a civil war in Iraq. Beginning this morning, MSNBC will refer to the fighting in Iraq as a civil war, a phrase the White House continues to resist. But after careful thought, MSNBC and NBC News decided over the weekend, the terminology is appropriate, as armed militarized factions fight for their own political agendas. Well have a lots more on the situation in Iraq and the decision to use the phrase, civil war.

And there you have it. It has begun. The MSM has been using bogus officials to supply chaos to their stories and based on those same stories has decided Iraq is now a official civil war.

Make sense?

UPDATE 1355hrs PST

A fresh AP report is out in which they allege that US soldiers shot up a bunch of civilians (h/t Riehl World View)

Separately, police and witnesses said U.S. soldiers shot and killed 11 civilians and wounded five on Sunday night in the Baghdad suburb of Husseiniya. The U.S. military said it had no record of any American military operation in the area.

“We were sitting inside our house when the Americans showed up and started firing at homes. They killed many people and burned some houses,” said one of the witnesses, a man with bandages on his head who was being treated at Imam Ali Hospital in the Shiite slum of Sadr City. The police and witnesses spoke with Associated Press Television News on condition of anonymity to protect their own security.

On Monday, about 250 people attended a memorial service outside the hospital’s morgue for the 11 victims, saying it was being conducted in the slum because the dead had been followers of the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The cleric and his Madhi Army militia are both based in Sadr City.

Let me sum this up. The military states that there was no operations going on in that area at that time but the AP decides to print unsubstantiated facts based on anonymous sources.

Now based on what I have found out about their other “source”, one Capt. Jamil Hussein, should we now believe these allegations?

I think not.

I have a email into my contact at Centcom for their reaction….stay tuned.

(more…)

Curt

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