Blatant lies by the US military in Baghdad?

What the hell is this?

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Monday that a natural gas explosion was to blame for a series of blasts that killed 47 people in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood the night before. But residents and the Iraqi government insisted the destruction was caused by car bombs and a rocket barrage from a neighborhood where American forces operate.

I mean, police and witnesses describe, in specific, the sequencing of a complex attack,

Ali Ibrahim, a shopkeeper in a market near the apartment complex, said he saw as many as 10 rockets strike several buildings, spraying debris and glass and setting several nearby shops on fire. ....

Iraqi television reported that as bystanders ran toward the scene to rescue victims from the rubble of the partly collapsed apartment complex, the second and third bombs exploded, killing dozens more.

Now, the official statement from Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Saddoun Abu al-Ula (from this AP article,) said the rockets appeared to come from the Sunni neighborhood of Dora, one of the only four neighborhoods in Baghdad that the US selected for it's new security plan.

So, why lie? To cover ass about Dora? I think it's more likely that the cover story is intended as psyop to tamp down any Shia reprisal(which might be focused on that same Dora neighborhood.)

It's just so blatant. I mean, does this description sound like a series of natural gas explosions?

A pedestrian bridge, ripped off its mooring at one end, had crushed a car underneath. One rocket had punched a hole in the roof of a house exposing the steel rod reinforcements inside. Store fronts were blasted inward, blowing away metal shutters.

(Later: I just can't let this go for some reason. Take a look at these pictures from the site. 1 2 3 4.)

I just don't think this is good policy. Eventually, when it really is a gas explosion, no one will believe you.

(I also think spending that credibility now may indicate just how "last gasp" the current security operations in Baghdad are.)

And, while we're on lies, the top military spokesman in Iraq said that there is no evidence that there are Iranians operating inside Iraq directly contradicting what the top civilian Bush administration representative in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said last Friday, "Iran ... has some forces here. There is the possibility that they might encourage those forces to create increased instability here."