As we saw last week with CNN’s speedy parroting of the DOD spin on the bombings in Afghanistan by US forces which killed a large number of civilians (we may never know that final death toll), the traditional media is mighty fast to buy whatever line the Pentagon is spinning.

The latest such incident goes a step further – and not just the MSM are playing along – Huffington Post jumped on board as well.

Here’s what happened.

US forces were driving through the Ras Al-Jadda neighborhood of Mosul when someone threw a hand grenade at them. There were no US injuries reported. The US forces then opened fire:

Aswat Al Iraq reports: “’the U.S. military opened random fire at pedestrians,” a security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.”

Reuters reports: “U.S. forces responded by firing at several people”

One person was killed – a 12 year old boy.

While officially the US command has opened an investigation into “the incident,”  a “military spokesman” emailed McClatchy reporters that "’We have every reason to believe that insurgents are paying children to conduct these attacks or assist the attackers in some capacity, undoubtedly placing the children in harm’s way," a U. S. military spokesman wrote in an email on Saturday.” And then claimed that they shot at "two of three people positively identified" as involved in tossing the single grenade.

McClatchy headlined their article:

U.S. soldiers, attacked, kill a 12-year-old Iraqi boy

And provides detailed accounts from multiple witnesses that point to the boy being an innocent bystander.

But Huffington Post – while linking to the McClatchy story has a big headline that reads:

Iraq Insurgents Paying Children To Conduct Attacks On US Troops

And then quotes only the sections from the McClatchy article supplied by US spinners:

American soldiers opened fire and killed a 12-year old boy after a grenade hit their convoy in Mosul on Thursday.

The boy was found with ten thousand Iraqi dinars in his hand – worth less than $9. U.S. officials said the money is evidence of a disturbing new trend.

No mention that all local witnesses quoted in the McClatchy article say the boy had nothing to do with the attack:

But eyewitnesses said the boy, identified as Omar Musa Salih, was standing by the side of the road selling fruit juice – a common practice in Iraq — and had nothing to do with the attack.

A friend, Ahmed Jassim, 15, said he was selling cans of Pepsi nearby when he heard the grenade explode. He dove behind a parked car, then heard the roar of machine gun fire. "When the shooting was over and the patrol went away, I stood and I saw Omar on the ground covered with blood," Jassim said.

Another witness, Ahmed IzAldeen, 56, said he saw the person who threw the grenade. It wasn’t the boy, but a man in his twenties, he said. IzAldeen said he saw the man standing behind a truck holding the grenade as the American patrol approached.

(snip)

"When attacked, the Americans just open fire, whether on the gunman or just randomly," said Usama Al Nujaifi, a member of Parliament from Mosul. "The American presence in the cities is wrong, we urged them to stay outside from the beginning."

(snip)

Friends of the Salih family said he was the oldest of 6 children. He quit school in the first grade, when he was six or seven years old.

He was well-known in the Ras Al-Jadda neighborhood, where the attack took place.

Digging out the two paragraphs of DOD spin to headline after all we know about the US SOP following the killing of civilians may give you a hot headline but it certainly does not tell the real story.

Update 8:05 PM – Huffington Post has now changed the headline to match McClatchy’s and substituted a basic descriptive paragraph for the summary.

Video: A short film made by four Iraqi children with help from Unicef – read more here.