February 2, 2006
@ 12:17 PM

Titled:   U.S. clash with militia leaves Iraqi woman dead

According to CNN.com, US forces attacked a crowded civilian area and killed an Iraqi woman with rockets and gunfire from a helicopter.

The woman's death is likely to inflame anti-U.S. sentiment. She was killed when U.S. soldiers battled early Thursday in Sadr City with the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
...

Baghdad police said the woman was killed and five civilians were wounded during the fighting.

Another view of the incident is given by Middle East Online:

"Ater[sic] conducting the raid one of the helicopters of the coalition forces came under fire from some men on a nearby rooftop following which another helicopter of the coalition forces returned fire to eliminate the threat in which four individuals were killed."

He did not say whether the four were members of the Mehdi Army, though an interior ministry official said the fight was between US forces and the Mehdi Army.

The official added that a woman was killed in the fighting.

If you only follow CNN's story, it sounds like just another day of brutal imperial oppression resulting in the unneccesary death of an innocent civilian. If you read other sources, it becomes apparent that this was an unfortunate result of enemy forces fighting from civilian areas in which the US forces got their men. 

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if armed men climb onto your roof to take on helicopters armed to the teeth with modern ordinance, it may be a good time to go visit some relatives or go shopping for a few hours. The same goes for when that pick-up truck with the .50 cal mounted on the back parks outside your front door. You would think that they would have learned from the Afghans that inviting known terrorists to dinner might result in a significantly more exciting evening than you had otherwise planned.