Today, on Page 8 of the Boston Globe, a story appears about a 12 year old Iraqi boy shot dead by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.  It didn't make the front-page. The story of the killing of Mohammed, as written for the Globe, is broken into parts by the Globe correspondent, with extraneous comment and another story interjected.  We have taken the liberty to re-write Mohammed's story intact with the writers comments and a second story of the U.S. killing of 28 year old Uday Ahmed following.  With the reading and retelling of story of the killing of Mohammed here, we ask ourselves"

1.  Is the killing of Mohammed an isolated "tragic accident" as the U.S. Military implies? 

2.  Is the widespread resistance to the violent occupation of a foreign government in Iraq limited only to Sunni Muslims who remain faithful to Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party, as repeatedly asserted by the U.S. government and corporate media?

3.  Is the resistance due to the orders of the hidden Saddam Hussein or is it a result of Sunni Muslims, Shi'ite Muslims and Christian Iraqis regardless of their religion or political party?

4. Will the U.S. invaders ever be able to succeed in "democratizing" the Iraqi people as the Bush regime insists is it's intention?

5. Just how widespread is the killing of civilians at the hands of the U.S. military in Iraq?  How many have been killed and how many continue to be killed on a daily basis?

6. What would the most heavily armed civilian population in the world - U.S. citizens be doing with their deer rifles, handguns, semi-automatic weapons and explosives if any foreign government were to invade this country and stealing our national resources?  Would it just be a few "fanatics" resisting such an occupation?

7.  When will we as U.S. citizens hold the U.S. government responsible for illegal, unprovoked invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq and the murders which continue to this day? -LMB

The story in today's Boston Globe begins:Civilian Deaths stoking resentment in Iraq, by Vivienne Wait, August 4, 2003

"Baghdad - It was 10:30 on a sweltering night when 12-year-old Mohammed al-Kubaisi climbed the concrete steps leading to his family's rooftop. The boy held two blankets so that he and his twin brother, Moustafa, could curl up together on the roof for the night, one of their favorite summer habits.

"Mohammed had just reached the top when he turned to watch the military maneuvers on the street below: American soldiers were patrolling with rifles. One soldier looked up in the darkness and saw a figure on the roof, watching him.

"A single bullet exploded into the air.

"Mohammed's mother recalled dragging her son inside and screaming as she held him, his blood pouring onto the floor. She said Mohammed was struggling to breathe when a group of U.S. soldiers slammed through the front door and pushed her aside as they searched the house ...

"...In the case of 12-year old Mohammed, soldiers visited the family to apologize. 'They asked us what compensation we wanted,' Latif, his mother said. 'My husband was incensed. He said he wanted 10 of their men to die in exchange'.

"The couple say the visitors told them a soldier had been arrested for their son's death. A military spokesman, Colonel Guy Shields denied that. Colonel Warren said the soldier who shot Mohammed was from the 82nd Airborne.

Family members insist the boy's death was not an accident. They say Mohammed could have been saved that night, if it had not been for the unyielding soldiers at a checkpoint in the Hay al-Jihad district in south Baghdad.

"...'I tried to rush him to the hospital in my car,' said a neighbor, 17 year-old Yaser Ala, 'They stopped us at the checkpoint because it was nearly curfew time."

"Ala drove back to the house where Mohammed bled to death in the car. They left the boy there until the curfew lifted at dawn, then drove to the hospital to confirm his death.

"Details of Mohammed's death were cited in a report released July 23 by Amnesty International.  The London-based organization said it's researchers in Irq had determined that U.S. forces were at times trigger-happy and were ill prepared for policing Iraq.

"Unable to accept the death of his identical twin, Moustaffa al-Kubaisi recently moved to his aunt's house saying he could not bear being at home.  In late July, he pooled his savings of 10,000 dinars, about $8, and bought a bicycle as a tribute for his dead brother."

"The death of one boy on June 26 is an almost-forgotten story as US forces continuue to face deadly attacks by armed insurgents. But Iraqis say the regularity of deaths among their own has hardened people's feelings regarding the American occupation.

"In numerous interviews, Iraqis said that more than factors like unemployment, fuel shortages, or elctricity blackouts - civilian casualties have raised their level of bitterness against U.S. soldiers and could prolong or even widen resistance.

"It has increased our hate against Americans," said Ali Hatem, 23, a computer science student at the University of Baghdad. 'It also increases the violence against them. In Iraq, we are tribal people. When someone loses their son, they want revenge'.

"Neither Iraqis nor American forces keep statistics for dead civilians like Mohammed, whose shooting the U.S. military calls a tragic accident." ...

"When asked whethr officers apologized to the families of Iraqis killed during a botched raid in Mansour on July 27, [Ricardo Sanchez, Commander of U.S. forces in Iraq] said, 'Apologies are not something that we have as a normal procedure in the military processes'.

"The U.S. military generally refuses to provide compensation to survivors of Iraqis killed in the crossfire or through misunderstandings, whether at military checkpoints or during patrols ...

"...the military has launched an internal investigation into Mohammed's death 'because it involved a 12-year-old boy, [Marc Warren, the senior U.S. miltary lawyer in Iraq] said yesterday.

"... 'No Americans have visited us to speak about what happened,' said Moustafa Ahmed, 28, who says his 24 year old brother, Uday Ahmed, was shot by a soldier from the 82 Airborne Division, 'And we don't feel we can go speak to them'.

"Uday had been fixing a neighbor's car to earn money.  He walked a few blocks from his house in the southwest Baghdad district of Saidiya to an auto repair yard to look for a spare part.  Walking across the yard, he held the car's ignition distributor, a metal object about the size and shape of a hand grenade.

"He was clearly visible from the roof of Doralt Police Station that abuts the repair yard. There, 82nd Airborne soldiers are posted behind sandbags, rifles at the ready.

"From atop the roof, a soldier spotted Uday Ahmed and fired. Details of what happened came from several witnesses in the yhard who were interviewed Thursday.

"... 'I heard the bang of a rifle shot and swung around,' said Ali Hassan, 40, who runs an outdoor falafel stand about 20 feet from where Uday stood. 'This man was holding a car part. He doubled over bleeding and then glanced up. At that moment, a second shot came from the roof of the police station ... It hit him and he dropped. There was blood everywhere.'

"The soldiers posted at the Dorah Police Station would not comment on Uday Ahmed's death and referred a reporter to the division's base two blocks away. Commanders there declined to discuss the case."

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/216/nation/Bitterness_grows_in_Iraq_over_deaths_of_civilians+.shtml