Footage of US raid on house in Iraq

This is some footage by Urban Hamid, a filmmaker who provided footage to Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 911.

Video of raid on house (20MB)

It shows a tank smashing a hole in the wall of a house during a night-time raid.
They then place hoods over two men and search the house.
I think smashing in the side of the house is overkill, they could have just stormed through the front door.

Hole in side of house from tank


One of the men in the house


Hooded men from house.


There's an interview with him on democracy now, where he says he tried to give the footage of abuse in Moore's movie to the networks in February and they weren't interested.

Democracy now:
AMY GOODMAN: This is some of the footage that Michael has in his film, "Fahrenheit 9/11."

URBAN HAMID: Yeah. That's correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you try to give it to the networks?

URBAN HAMID: Oh, yeah. I came to the States mid-February until mid-March and, you know, we sent out lots and lots of press releases, and nothing.

ACE_ACE_ACE... your kidding right?

They could have come in through the front door?

Are you going to send tropps in the front door of a suspected bad guy because you don't want to offend his sensiblities?

Go in fast and hard. scare them into paralysis and hopefully no one including the bad guys has to die.

Originally posted by crmanager
ACE_ACE_ACE... your kidding right?

They could have come in through the front door?

Are you going to send tropps in the front door of a suspected bad guy because you don't want to offend his sensiblities?

Go in fast and hard. scare them into paralysis and hopefully no one including the bad guys has to die.

I agree. Going through a doorway can be considered suicide.

Going through the wall scares will paralyze someone with fear. I recall Full Metal Jacket and Pvt. Joker's war cry. I've been taught that in close quarter combat, a bayonet and a war cry can cause the enemy to go cold with fear.

In fact, in May Scottish troops fixed their bayonets and charged Sadr militiamen and slaughtered them, taking only a few minor casualties in the process! Can you imagine the sight a screaming soldiers charging at you with a bayonet? Damn! I'd be terrified.

If you watch the video, it wasn't that fast.
They took a couple of hits to get through the wall and then the soldiers had to walk in through the hole.

If the house they were storming had armed people in it, they could have easily killed the soldiers as they walked in.

I don't see how the tank made it less dangerous in the way they used it.

Originally posted by AceOfBase
If you watch the video, it wasn't that fast.
They took a couple of hits to get through the wall and then the soldiers had to walk in through the hole.

If the house they were storming had armed people in it, they could have easily killed the soldiers as they walked in.

I don't see how the tank made it less dangerous in the way they used it.

I will tell you how. When a tank blows up a wall of your house there are a few moments of shock/loss of hearing/dissorientation. It is in these moments where you "freeze" and have to make a decision. By this time you already have men coming into your house, and you have no choice but to die or surrender. What would you do?

I think the more interesting aspect is that none of the networks were interested in the footage. Who controls the media? I always hear different answers.

If they had actually found some weaponf in the house, it wouldn't have been so bad. It looked like yet another case of bad intelligence though.

I thought they did find weapons though. When they are looking at there passports/Id's on the table there is what appears to be an AK/47 sitting there next to the passports. You have to understand though that these soldiers would be very scared in some of the situations they are put in.

Anyway very interesting video thanks heaps for posting gives you a perspective of what really goes on in Iraq when it's dark.