IRAQI RESISTANCE: PROPAGANDA WATCH

online.info: US Army Samarra 'Victory' Story Falls Apart
Coverage Of Samarra Firefight Disputed

All the people in town today are asking for revenge. They want to kill the Americans like they killed our civilians. Give me a gun, and I will also fight." -Iraqi ER worker

NEW YORK -- One week after newspapers were forced to correct front-page reports that two U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq had been "mutilated," coverage of a weekend firefight between U.S. soldiers and guerrillas in Samarra is being questioned as Iraq officials and witnesses claim the U.S. military vastly overestimated the number of Iraqis killed by American troops.

Numerous newspapers on Monday played up as front page news the Sunday clash between rebel forces and U.S. soldiers in the city of Samarra, with most declaring that between 46 and 54 Iraqis had been killed and using only U.S. military officials as their sources. After a run of bad news for the U.S. in Iraq -- including a record monthly death toll of U.S. soldiers -- the military portrayed this as a major victory, and the press seemed to accept it.

Neither The New York Times, New York Post, The Boston Globe, USA Today, The Washington Post, or Knight Ridder included any civilian witnesses or Iraqi hospital accounts in their initial reports Monday. Many flatly reported the death tally and account of the battle without noting this was "according to military officials." The Times topped its front page with the declarative headline: "46 Iraqis Die in Fierce Fight Between Rebels and GIs," and this was common treatment. The Los Angeles Times account, however, noted that the 54 deaths had yet to be confirmed and included hospital officials' contentions that only nine people had died.

ICH: Eyewitness Report - The 'Battle' At Samarra
Translated and compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr

(ICH) -- In the 24 hours following what is now being called the Battle of Samarra' Arab and international news media are beginning to piece together a picture of what really transpired. Two separate American columns on opposite sides of the city were simultaneously ambushed by Iraqi Resistance fighters.

A ferocious battle ensued in which the Iraqis battled the US forces who fired back indiscriminately with everything from automatic weapons to tank cannon and rockets from helicopter gunships.

After inflicting casualties on the Americans the Resistance fighters withdrew. The American troops, however, continued to shell and rocket residential quarters of Samarra' for hours as if to punish residents and drive a wedge between them and the Iraqi Resistance.

The result has been quite the opposite. As the people of Samarra' awakened Monday to survey the battle damage they talked to the press of their outrage at the brutality of the American aggressors and their resolve to join the ranks of the Resistance.

After initially claiming that they had killed 46 Resistance fighters in their Sunday battle against two simultaneous attacks in Samarra', US aggressor spokesmen on Monday claimed that they had actually
killed 54 Iraqis as they used tanks and cannon to fight their way out of simultaneous ambushes.

Iraqi witnesses, however, painted a different story. The Associated Press reported that residents of Samarra' disputed those American figures, saying at most eight or nine people died. Three bodies lay in the hospital morgue. The AP, afraid to challenge the official American story directly, observed: "there was no way to reconcile the accounts."

Al-Jazeera TV reported that hospital sources in the city reported US gunfire killed eight people, all of them civilians. The Arabic language daily newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Tuesday on the basis of hospital reports that ten persons were killed in the attack...........

"Samarra liegt der naehe von zwei Shiitischen Heiligtuemern. Bis jetzt wurde der groesste Teil der Angriffe auf Amerikaner von Sunnitschen Gebieten gestartet. Die Shiiten stellen 60% der Bevoelkerung des Irak und haben bis jetzt noch keinen militaerischen Wiederstand geleistet. Das koennte sich schnell aendern. Dann hat die USA eine noch viel groesseres Problem als sie bereits haben"