Al-Tuwaisi, Basra

2003-04-05

17

Coalition forces targeted a residence in al-Tuwaisi, a residential area of downtown Basra, where they believed Saddam's cousin and top aide, Ali Hassan al-Majid, was hiding. Al-Majid was known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in gassing the Kurds in the 1988 Anfal Campaign. Initial reports in the BBC suggested the forces hit their target. However, Central Command later revoked this claim. Al-Jazeera reported that seventeen civilians, including nine children, died from air strikes in the city. The strike strike apparently hit its intended target, but the surrounding buildings in the densely-populated civilian area were also destroyed. Human Rights Watch investigators confirmed that seventeen civilians were killed in this attack. Before this incident, Marc Garlasco was one of the Pentagon's leading analysts of air strikes, including assassinations. His job entailed closely analyzing targets to ensure minimal collateral damage with a software program called Bugsplat. He recalls cheering as he watched the live video feed from the Predator drone as it dropped the bomb on the building in Basra. Days after the strike, he accepted a position with Human Rights Watch traveling to Iraq to examine the success or failure of the military in avoiding civilian casualties. At the site in Basra, witnesses told him that they had never seen Chemical Ali in the area. He spoke with the man whose lost seven members of his family, his home, and ten neighbors in the attack. Garlasco said the following about his experience in a 2008 interview with Josh White of the Washington Post: "I found myself standing at that crater, talking to a man about how his family was destroyed, how children were killed, and there was this bunny-rabbit toy covered in dust nearby, and it tore me in two," Garlasco said. "I had been a part of it, so it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It really dawned on me that these aren't just nameless, faceless targets. This is a place where people are going to feel ramifications for a long time."

eye witness accounts, drone / unmanned, leadership / assassination, US / NATO investigation, US / NATO statement, NATO led, cluster bomb(s), US / NATO civilian acknowledgment, local protest, in-flight decision, GPS / JDAM