IRAQ: New video footage showing Iraqis celebrating a desert wedding raised more questions yesterday about a US air strike last week that killed about 40 people.
The US military insisted most of the dead were foreign guerrilla fighters who had slipped over the nearby Syrian border. Local people say the Americans massacred wedding guests. Associated Press Television News said it had obtained the footage from a survivor of the strike early on May 19th.
A musician, who said he was the only survivor of the 10-man band which played at the party, said the film was shot on Monday, May 17th. The film shows pick-up trucks racing across the desert - some of the dead came from the regional capital Ramadi - men dancing in a tent, children playing and a musician playing an electric organ. The same man later appeared dead in a shroud.
Standing over three-year-old Kholoud al-Muhammed at a hospital in Ramadi, Mamdouh Harajee listed off the dead. "She lost her mother and father. Another family of eight lost six members. Another family lost four," he said. "It was just a wedding."
