Iraqi Red Crescent Spoke Too Soon?

During a United Nations meeting in Geneva on Friday, Dr. Jamal Al-Karbouli, the vice president of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, had told a gathering of reporters that “the main problem we are facing is the American forces more than the other forces.

The American military, he said, had been consisitently using overly aggressive tactics — what he even referred to as “attacks” — in searching the agency’s headquarters for insurgents. But the insurgents themselves had never given the Red Crescent any trouble.

“The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis,” he told reporters. “And they respect our (the Red Crescent’s) identity, which is neutrality.”

By Tom Zeller Jr.