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- Qatada -
10-24-2005, 06:37 PM
:sl:

'These Rivers of Blood Should be Stopped'
Source: Reuters

Grieving Iraq Family Sees no end to “Rivers of Blood”

23 October 2005


BAGHDAD - Adel Abed Hammed was a skinny 31-year-old so withdrawn he sometimes went days without talking to anybody and would let only his mother touch him.


Mentally ill since childhood, he used to wander the streets of Baghdad alone. One day he chanced on some American soldiers who shot him dead after he took fright at a bullet fired over his head.

“I wouldn’t feel such misery if he wasn’t so sick but that makes it double for me,” said his mother. “He was like a child.”

The 62-year-old Baghdad housewife is one of many thousands of Iraqis who are mourning sons and daughters killed in a conflict that has also claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 US troops. Many Iraqis, like Adel, have been killed by American soldiers.

Iraq Body Count, a peace group which counts casualties based on media reports, says on average 38 Iraqis a day die violently. It says at least 26,600 have died since the invasion but the true figure may be higher because many deaths go unreported.

The US military says it does not target civilians or count their deaths. Rebels often attack US checkpoints and patrols. Soldiers are authorised to use lethal force in self-defence.

A report by Iraq Body Count in July said nearly 37 percent of the Iraqi deaths it had recorded were caused by US-led forces, with the rest caused by insurgents and criminal gangs.

According to icasualties.org, a website run by a non-governmental group that tallies US and Iraqi casualties, more than 3,400 Iraqi police and soldiers have been killed in postwar Iraq, including more than 2,100 this year alone.

Behind every statistic is a grieving family.

“He always used to go walking for hours,” Adel’s mother said, sitting with her husband and two more sons in the living room of the family house in an upscale Baghdad neighbourhood.

“When he came home he used to tell me about what he saw on the road. I used to take him to the bathroom and wash him.”

Adel’s father, Abed Hammed Abbas, 73, says his son left the house mid-morning, wearing jeans and a shirt, and when he did not come back by nightfall, they began to fear for him.

“I stayed up all night crying, waiting for him outside the house,” Adel’s mother said, speaking through tears. “I pictured him dead, with blood coming from his face.”

The following day a neighbour told them he had seen Adel shot on a highway near their home.

The neighbour, who did not want to be identified, said he was walking home when he saw the US patrol in Humvee armoured vehicles and tanks, stationed on both sides of the road.

“I saw Adel coming walking slowly towards the Americans from the other side. They fired a warning shot over his head. Adel panicked and ran to the other side of the highway.

“He’d just started running when they shot him with a couple of bullets. Then he fell to the ground. Four soldiers approached his body and checked him, then they carried his body to a Humvee and put him inside and took him away.”

Adel’s father Abed went to the police, who directed him to a hospital. “They told us the Americans brought a person there that was killed and we could find the body in the morgue. We checked it and it was my son, Adel,” Abed said.

’Shot from behind’

“We found he was shot from behind, right through the kidneys. The other bullet wound was near the hip,” he said.

The Americans had left a “claims card” with details of the incident and how the family could seek compensation. Adel’s family has not decided whether to press a claim.

Adel met his death as the eyes of the world were focused on a constitutional referendum and on the trial of Saddam Hussein.

As these events unfolded, Adel’s mother received condolence visits from friends and relatives in a mourning ritual that has been repeated day after day in countless homes around Iraq.

Adel’s cousin Abdullah Hussain, a doctor, said it should have been clear that Adel was mentally ill. “He was very innocent. Anyone could tell he was ill from the first moment.”

“The Americans are spreading terror in Iraq because they are terrified,” he added. “These are not the qualities of liberators but criminals.”

Adel’s older brother Ali said the Americans should leave Iraq. “These rivers of blood should be stopped,” he said.


:w: warahmatulahi wabarakatuh.
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Halima
10-24-2005, 06:46 PM
Sadness indeed. Thank you reporter Akhee. Now if we may have a minute of silence for those people in Iraq.
Reply

imaad_udeen
11-01-2005, 04:11 PM
Proud Mary
by Creedence Clearwater Revival


Left a good job in the city,
Workin' for The Man ev'ry night and day,
bet I never lost one minute of sleepin',
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been.

Big wheel keep on turnin',
Proud Mary keep on burnin',
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river.

Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis,
Pumped a lot of 'pane down in New Orleans,
But I never saw the good side of the city,
'Till I hitched a ride on a river boat queen.

Big wheel keep on turnin',
Proud Mary keep on burnin',
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river.

If you come down to the river,
Bet you gonna find some people who live.
You don't have to worry 'cause you have no money,
People on the river are happy to give.

Big wheel keep on turnin',
Proud Mary keep on burnin',
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river.
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river.
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river.
Reply

eyes_of_mine
11-01-2005, 11:07 PM
And there certainly are rivers of blood there.

Mosul early 2005
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imaad_udeen
11-02-2005, 02:20 PM
format_quote Originally Posted by Hashim
:sl:

Very intersting brother, what does this mean (whats the moral or point behind this poem)?

:sl:
Oh, there is no significance except the reference to rivers in the thread and the song. Was listening to it as I happened to read this thread.
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Sahabiyaat
11-02-2005, 07:07 PM
:sl:

u no wen ever i read stuff like this or watch it on t.v
i've stopped feeling horror or suprise,or sadness.


i feel empty nothingness

and that nothingness is the worst u can feel amongst all emotions

it signifies all emotions without u feeling them

fear
helplessness
shock
sympathy
grief

and all along ur silent
ur face betrays nothing...its immobile

because blood is spilt like water
and its normal now.

:w:
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