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December 8th,
2006 - Iraqis, U.S. Dispute Deadly Raid in New Friction |
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Iraqis, U.S. Dispute Deadly Raid
in New Friction By Ibon Villelabeitia Reuters Fri Dec 8, 2006 1:17 PM ET Baghdad - Iraqi and U.S.
officials disputed each others' accounts of an overnight raid and air strike
on Friday that killed up to 20 people in a new sign of friction over
allegations of American troops killing civilians. The U.S. military said
ground forces with air support killed 20 suspected al Qaeda militants,
including two women, in an area north of the capital where the Sunni Arab
insurgency is strong. Police and officials in
Ishaqi, 90 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, said the bodies of 17 civilians,
including six women and five children, were found in the rubble of two homes. "The Americans have
done this before but they always deny it," Ishaqi Mayor Amer Alwan told
Reuters by telephone. "I want the world to know what's happening
here." Complaints that unjustified
killings by U.S. troops are common have soured Iraqis' sentiment toward the
U.S. presence in Iraq and prompted Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
earlier this year to say he was losing patience over such reports. This week an elite panel in
Washington, exploring alternatives for U.S. President George W. Bush's Iraq
strategy, recommended the primary mission of U.S. forces evolve to one of
training to let Iraqi forces take over combat responsibility. But the White House on
Friday dismissed former Secretary of State James Baker's appeal that the
panel's recommendations be largely adopted as a whole. White House spokeswoman Dana
Perino said the Iraq report would be considered along with internal reviews
being conducted by the Pentagon, the State Department and the National
Security Council. Bush has meetings next week with senior Pentagon and State
Department officials and outside experts on Iraq. Bush is due to outline his
new Iraq policy before Christmas. He has rejected direct talks with Iran and
Syria, a central recommendation of the panel. More than 2,900 U.S. troops
have died since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein and
tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed. Children's Bodies In Ishaqi, grieving
relatives showed the bodies of five children wrapped in blankets to
journalists. The houses, surrounded by open fields, were flattened in the
raid, leaving little but rubble and twisted steel rods. In a statement, the U.S.
military said the operation in Salahaddin province followed intelligence
reports that al Qaeda militants operated in the area. It said
rocket-propelled grenades and explosive suicide vests were found. Only a handful of complaints
involving civilian deaths in Iraq have led to criminal investigations by the
U.S. military. "I can promise you
that, in every one of these incidents, they will be fully investigated,"
Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. general in the
country, told Pentagon journalists by video-link. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan warned violence in Iraq made a regional war in the Middle East a
growing possibility. "The prospect of
all-out civil war and even a regional conflict have become much more
real," he said. "The challenge is not only to contain and defuse
the violence but also to prevent escalation." In the largest operation of
its kind since the U.S. invasion, British and Danish troops backed by tanks
seized five suspects accused of attacks on coalition forces in the southern
city of Basra, the British military said. Some 1,000 troops, including
amphibious assault teams, launched pre-dawn raids on five homes in the
densely populated northern al-Hartha district of Basra, where rival Shi'ite
militias are battling for control of the city's oil wealth and coalition
troops are sometimes attacked. (Additional reporting by
Ghazwan al-Jibouri in Ishaqi and Mariam Karouny and Ross Colvin in Baghdad,
and Andrew Gray in Washington) Editing by Janet Lawrence,
Baghdad newsroom. © Reuters 2006. All rights
reserved. External link: http://tinyurl.com/wh6wy |