Meanwhile, the U.S. air war in Iraq continues. On Saturday a U.S. helicopter struck near the town of Husseiniya north of Baghdad. The U.S. claimed the strike killed six insurgents, but local police and residents said the attack killed 18 civilians and injured 21 more. Television footage showed heaps of rubble of flattened houses as people and rescuers sifted through the debris looking for bodies or injured residents. Six bodies wrapped in blankets could be seen lined up on the ground near the rubble of one of the houses. One elderly resident condemned the U.S. attack.

Neighborhood resident: “This is what the occupation does. The occupation. Look at the forklift trucks. They’ve turned the world upside down. Our relatives have been ripped to pieces. Does God accept this? Does Muhammad accept it? Why, are we heathens? Even Israel hasn’t done anything like this. Israel did not do what America has done to us.”

On Sunday, nearly 1,000 Iraqis rallied in Husseiniya to protest the killings.