This is fucking bullshit!!

Ok first I'll post the news article and then fill you in on some details.

-----

U.S. says 20 gunmen killed in Baghdad battle
By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 20 suspected gunmen were killed in a fierce day-long battle between U.S. and Iraqi troops in central Baghdad on Tuesday in which 16 U.S. soldiers were also wounded, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

Residents of Fadhil district, a violent Sunni insurgent stronghold on the east bank of the Tigris River and the scene of Tuesday's fighting, held funeral processions to bury the bodies of 15 men at the nearby Adhamiya cemetery

The U.S. military said the battle erupted after gunmen fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops during a routine search operation. The fighting quickly escalated and two U.S. helicopters were hit by ground fire and had to return to base.

It was the worst outbreak of violence since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major security crackdown in the capital two months ago aimed at curbing rampant sectarian violence that threatens to plunge Iraq into full-scale civil war.

U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said an estimated 20 gunmen had been killed. The army initially put the toll at three. He also said that 13 of the 16 wounded American soldiers had since returned to duty.

An Iraqi policeman at the nearby al-Numan hospital said the hospital had received 30 people with wounds of varying severity.

Fadhil was reported to be quiet on Wednesday, but residents taking part in two funeral processions down the main street of the district were angry.

They denounced the Shi'ite-led government and said those slain were innocent and one old man threw his slippers at a passing patrol of three U.S. vehicles, witnesses said.

"They were shouting and demanding the government compensate families of the slain people and pay money to those whose homes had been damaged," a local journalist and resident Abu Omar said.

Abu Omar told Reuters on Tuesday he saw a U.S. attack helicopter open fire on gunmen holed up in one house.

-----

[Removed for screening]