Thursday, August 03, 2006 Qana's death toll may only be 41 instead of 60+ and Haditha massacre deemed a massacre Human Rts Watch is disputing the total number of dead that were killed in the bombing of that 3 storey home in Qana. Human Rts Watch (who reported that Israel is using illegal weapons on Lebanese civilians & has pix of them to prove it) report that the number of dead from that attack is lower than what has been reported: "The initial estimate of 54 persons killed was based on a register of 63 persons who had sought shelter in the basement of the building, and rescue teams located 9 survivors. The group's preliminary investigation found 22 family members were able to escape & 28 are confirmed dead. 13 people remain missing, and due to indications (smell of rotting remains) is it feared that they are buried in the rubble, although all recovery efforts have stopped. Of the confirmed dead, 16 are children." My take?: Times are pretty fucking bad if we look on this as good news, but sadly, having only 16 confirmed dead kids is good news. But I'm sure some kids are also part of the 13 who are buried in the rubble. But here's the really stunning part of this entire news: Israel admits that they were completely wrong to bomb that family residence: The Israeli govt initially claimed that the military targeted the house because Hezbollah fighters had fired rockets from the area. Human Rts Watch researchers who visited Qana on July 31, the day after the attack, did not find any destroyed military equipment in or near the home. Similarly, none of the dozens of internatl journalists, rescue workers and internatl observers who visited Qana on July 30 & 31 reported seeing any evidence of Hezbollah military presence in or around the home. Rescue workers recovered no bodies of apparent Hezbollah fighters from inside or near the building. The IDF subsequently changed its story, reporting on Aug 1 that, "It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time." So, all of those people were killed for absolutely no reason... but at least they admitted it. Which is more than our own military has readily done in recent massacre scandals... ahem... that means you psychos who "smiled before shooting the Haditha civilians." |