US troops' big victory is short of bodies

[Ayinde]

US troops' big victory is strangely short of bodies

By Dexter Filkins and Ian Fisher in Samarra, Iraq
December 3, 2003

The convoy that carries cash to two banks in Samarra had been attacked before, but this time the US troops were ready.

They rumbled into the Baathist city of Samarra with tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and armoured Humvees. They even put snipers on the roofs.

On cue, the guerillas attacked, but US commanders claim the Iraqis suffered a devastating defeat - 54 dead after a three-hour battle on Sunday in which the US suffered only five wounded.

However, the figures are in doubt and as local Iraqis began dragging away the wreckage and counting their dead the question emerged:

what happened to all the corpses?

While US commanders said the Iraqi body count came from precise reports filed immediately after a close-range battle, hospital officials said on Monday that they could account for, at most, eight dead, and that most of those were civilians.

On Monday morning, only two bodies - a grey-bearded old man and a middle-aged woman - lay on the bloody steel trays of the hospital morgue.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/02/1070351586791.html