The bus was carrying about 60 people, all but five of them women and children, who were traveling home to Basra after attending a memorial service, as an American military supply convoy drove past them in the northbound lane, according to passengers. About 1:40 p.m., an explosion tore into the driver's side of the bus and blew out the other side, filling the vehicle with black smoke and the screams of the passengers, witnesses said.
The U.S. military said in a statement that a lethal roadside bomb known as an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, slammed into the bus and also blasted the passing convoy, wounding a U.S. soldier and a civilian traveling in the convoy. The bomb, which shoots heated copper slugs, was similar to EFPs that American military officials say are manufactured in Iran.
But the driver, Zeki Abdul Qader, and a passenger, Qasim Salih Jubur, said they believed the U.S. soldiers opened fire on the bus after it had already safely passed what they were later told was a spot where a roadside bomb had exploded. They said their bus was struck with bullets seconds before they were hit with the explosion, which they believed was some sort of rocket or grenade fired from the U.S. convoy.
"The Americans shot us," Jubur said. "One hundred percent it was the Americans."
"We absolutely did not fire on the bus," said Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. "Absolutely not."
The passengers on the bus left Basra on Sunday to visit holy Shiite shrines in Karbala and Najaf, and to attend the commemoration for a woman from their tribe who had died 40 days earlier. The bus was passing through a desert area when the explosion occurred.
Qader, the driver, said he was reaching the tail end of a long military convoy when he heard gunfire and the sound of bullets striking his bus.
"They shot me with small arms from the beginning of the bus to the end, the whole side, then they shot this rocket," Qader, 58, said in a telephone interview. The explosion tore through three rows near the middle of the bus -- four passengers per row--killing 12 people almost instantly, he said. Four others on the bus were also killed, he said.
"The bus turned to all black smoke, you could see nothing, and all the windows blew out except one or two," he said. "The bus went off the road and I tried hard to keep it from flipping over."
After the bus stopped, U.S. soldiers cordoned off the surrounding area and Iraqi forces arrived at the scene. Qader and Jubur said they themselves did not see American soldiers firing but heard the gunfire and were told by the Iraqi soldiers that the American troops had fired.
Abbas al-Khafaji, director of the funeral home in Najaf where the bodies were taken for burial preparation, said one infant and at least four women had bullet holes in their bodies in addition to shrapnel wounds. Ali Hussein, 37, the uncle of the slain 6-month-old, Abbas Jihad, confirmed that the boy had two bullet wounds in the chest.
Unfortunately for WaPo, Toby Nunn a Blogger with Bad Voodoo Platoon was there
When I was a boy my Dad used to tell me don't believe everything you hear, read or see. Again, I find myself reminded of his wisdom. Here in the last couple days I have been reading, hearing and watching the complete and utter failure in journalism. The other day the boys of Bad Voo Doo and I were on a mission in southern Iraq and where only a short distance from what has been reported as a travesty, tragedy and another example of the reckless US Army.
While assisting a bomb blast that struck a civilian bus that was in the vicinity of the convoy immediately to our front I did not see a single news reporter or media person. By the time I got to my destination the reports were already online about the casualties and conduct of the US Forces. Pray tell where were the media getting their information?
In an account printed in the coveted Washington Post, the reporter quoted the bus driver and passengers from the damaged bus as saying the US Army engaged the bus with machine guns and rockets after the nearby convoy was attacked by an EID or Road Side Bomb. There was a qoute saying that the driver was 100% positive he was attacked by Americans. I also noted that the reporter at no time mentioned even an attempt to contact the US unit involved for a statement but only a Army representative in Baghdad. This Saigon style of reporting should not be tolerated. The media's political agenda's SHOULD NOT outweigh their ethical obligation to report the news objectively and accurately. If the reporter is even here in Iraq he should know that US Soldiers do not carry Rockets so how could the bus driver have been attacked by some? Where did the casualty numbers come from? How were the facts checked? THEY WEREN'T plain and simple.
The true story of the event was the Iraqi security forces took point on the attack. The police responded, brought ambulances and helped secure the scene with out prompting or prodding. Their execution was not great BUT the spirit in the attempt was amazing. It might seem like a small step but its monumental in the advancement of a fledgling force to operate organically. I was proud to see them in action.
Sorry Joshua Partlow and Saad Sarhan of the Washington Post foreign service, your account was completely inaccurate with potentially the only truth being an Iranian influenced Improvised Explosive Device. There were no American casualties and the US forces never fired a shot just helped some innocent bus riders. The two of you should be ashamed and have your credentials pulled for your utter lack of journalism or professional ethics. Perhaps I should write and submit an article on Iceland's cruelty to Unicorns because it will be as objective, honest and accurate as your sorry offering. milblogger on the scene was Toby Nunn, a member of the Bad Voodoo Platoon featured in tonight's Frontline..