Photos aim to bolster US case of attack on fighters, not wedding
BAGHDAD -- The US military introduced more photographs yesterday to bolster its contention that American aircraft attacked a safehouse for foreign fighters near the Syrian border -- not a wedding party, as contended by Iraqi survivors and police and suggested by footage from the scene.
The military presented its case at a news conference.
Elsewhere in the capital, the widow of a popular Baghdad wedding singer, who was among up to 45 people killed in Wednesday's attack, said, ''he was an example of beauty. . . . He had a warm voice," Khawla Ibrahim said of her 37-year-old husband, Hussein al-Ali. ''They always played his songs on the radio."
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition deputy chief of staff for operations in Iraq, introduced several new photographs yesterday -- those of a house and white powder he said was being tested for drugs.
Kimmitt again showed pictures of items the military said it found at the attack site, including machine guns, rounds of ammunition, a Sudan Airways plane ticket, medical gear, a Sudanese passport, and battery packs associated with improvised explosive devices.
''These are pictures that are somewhat inconsistent, in my mind, with a wedding party," Kimmitt said. ''One could say, yes, it is true that out in the desert you need to have a rifle to protect yourself against Ali Baba, but the necessity for rocket-propelled launchers" and ''special machine guns may be a little much for Ali Baba out there."
Photos displayed by the US command have shown about a dozen weapons, including rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and handguns.
Also killed were musician Muhanad al-Ali, who had promised to buy jewelry for his wife from the money he expected to earn for performing at a wedding party, and his brother Hussein, the singer.
The tape of the celebrations, captured by a hired cameraman, shows Ali as he plays an electric organ. His older half brother, Hussein, sings to an audience of men reclining on brightly-colored silk pillows. APTN video that was shot in Ramadi Wednesday shows the body of the younger Ali in a burial shroud, his face clearly visible and wearing the same tan shirt that he wore during the performance.
