False massacre report puts media on firing line

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The report sounded horrific. A suicide truck bomb set off in Ramadi, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, targeted children on a soccer field, killing at least 15. The story was repeated by wire services, newspapers and television newscasts. Political figures and humanitarian groups alike condemned the attack.

The only problem: it didn't happen, a senior U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

"There were no children killed," said Rear Adm. Mark Fox, spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq. "The allegation was false."

The reports highlight how difficult it can be for media to get fast, accurate information in a country where rumors quickly take on the appearance of truth and where deadly violence often occurs in areas where Western journalists would themselves be targeted by killers or kidnappers if they tried to report from the scene.

State-run Iraqiya TV first reported the incident Tuesday shortly after 8 p.m., scrolling the words across the bottom of the screen. Other television stations quickly followed with their own reports. Before the night was out, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had condemned the act, as had the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The Washington Post, in a report carried in The Seattle Times, reported Wednesday that 16 children and two women died in the explosion, citing Col. Tariq al-Alwani, the security supervisor in Anbar province. The Post said the bomb was hidden in a Kia pickup truck and exploded Monday.

The Baghdad edition of the international Arabic daily Asharq al Awsat (the Middle East) had the story on its front page, citing an anonymous source in Ramadi. It said 18 children from age 10 to 15 were killed and an additional 20 injured. The newspaper didn't specify the date of the explosion.

The Los Angeles Times, which also said 18 were killed but from age 6 to 12, and The New York Times, which quoted a Ramadi doctor as saying 15 children were killed, treated the story with skepticism. The two newspapers, which both said the explosion occurred Tuesday, cited a military spokeswoman who disputed the accounts.

Iraqi television dropped the report Wednesday night, and some officials in Ramadi backed off their early statements, saying people may have been mixing up the purported incident with another bombing.

The one clear thing to emerge from the still-murky reports was how easy it is to inflame already searing Sunni-Shiite tensions in Iraq, where al-Maliki's Shiite-led government is struggling to contain sectarian bloodshed, and how difficult it is to get to the truth.

Al-Maliki's hasty response blamed "criminal gangs," a clear euphemism for Sunni insurgents who in recent days have attacked a college campus, restaurants and marketplaces.

"This horrendous act is affirming that these gangs are not related to Islam and Muhammad teachings, and reveal the ugly face of the princes of slaughter," he said.

Because the initial reports came out at night, close to curfew and in a city far too dangerous for most people to be on the streets after dark, the television reports did not include footage from the scene.

Given the extent of the carnage in Iraq, the reported attack, while startling for its apparent targeting of children at play, was entirely plausible. Children and young people frequently are caught in the middle of Iraq's sectarian war and have been targeted in the past.

In July 2005, a suicide bomber struck on a Baghdad street where U.S. troops were handing out candy to children, and at least 18 children were among the dead. In recent weeks, young people at college campuses have twice been targeted in deadly suicide blasts.

Rear Admiral Fox, speaking in Baghdad's secure Green Zone on Wednesday, said the story somehow evolved out of a real explosion that occurred in Ramadi on Tuesday, one that was planned by coalition forces but got out of hand.

Fox said the detonation went awry when troops misjudged the amount of munitions in the cache. "It was a much greater explosion than was anticipated," Fox said. The blast blew out glass and debris from the building, injuring 30 civilians and one Iraqi soldier.

Fox said he thought some of the injuries were among children on a soccer field across the street. The injuries were superficial and not life-threatening, he said. The victims were treated at a coalition first-aid station, though some had serious enough injuries to be airlifted to a nearby military hospital, the statement said.

"And then yesterday at the same time there began this swirl about a bomb blast at a Ramadi field and 18 children," Fox said. "We ran this down: There was no second blast and there were no 18 children killed."

Ramadi, in Anbar province, has been the scene of much violence as Sunni tribes battle with al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents battle U.S. troops. On Saturday, suspected al-Qaida forces attacked a mosque where the imam had preached against them.