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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 5th,
2008 - Iraq: 4 Killed in US Raid |
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By Kim Gamel Associated Press February 5, 2008 Baghdad - The U.S. military
faced complaints Tuesday from its Sunni allies over claims that more
civilians had been killed by American forces - amplifying tensions as the
Pentagon tries to calm anger over an airstrike last week that claimed
innocent lives. The disputes have further
strained ties with anti-al-Qaida fighters considered crucial in turning the
tide against extremist violence. The latest deaths occurred when
U.S. soldiers - acting on tips - stormed a squat, mud-brick house in the
village of Adwar, 10 miles south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. The
predominantly Sunni area is home to many former members of Saddam's regime,
and has been the frequent site of American raids. The U.S. military said a
gunbattle broke out after the troops came under small-arms fire by two
suspected terrorists. It acknowledged a woman was killed and a child was
wounded, but said it was not clear who shot them. Two other men were killed
and the military described them as insurgents. But Iraqi police, relatives
and neighbors said a couple and their 19-year-old son were shot to death in
their beds. Iraqi police also said two girls were wounded and one later died.
AP Television News video showed the doors pockmarked with bullet holes and
pillows and other bedding on the floor and soaked with blood. It was the second time in as
many days that the U.S. military conceded involvement in the death of Iraqi
civilians. On Monday, the military said
it had accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians, including a child, in an
airstrike Saturday targeting al-Qaida in Iraq south of Baghdad. The killings illustrate the
increasing difficulty in identifying the enemy as the nature of the U.S.-led
war in Iraq has changed. Many former insurgents and tribal leaders have
joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq. The mistaken
shootings also threaten to jeopardize the fragile relationship between the
Americans and their new Sunni partners. "Such acts by U.S.
soldiers cannot be justified and they will create mistrust and arouse
suspicions between U.S. Army and members of the awakening councils,"
said Abu Muthanna, a leader of a U.S.-backed anti-al-Qaida group in the
northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah. "This could hurt the level of
cooperation between the two sides." Both U.S. raids on Saturday
and Tuesday were based on what the military said was intelligence gleaned
from informants. That raised the possibility that the military was misled
into targeting the households, perhaps as part of an insurgent campaign to
derail the U.S.-backed Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq. In Tuesday's incident, the
U.S. military said it "regrets the loss of an innocent civilian and the
wounding of a child." It said U.S. soldiers killed the two men in
self-defense. But the head of Adwar's
Awakening Council, Col. Mutasim Ahmed, said that one of the men killed was a
U.S.-allied fighter and said it appeared that gunmen were positioned near the
house and attacked the Americans, provoking return fire. "Our own investigation
is continuing and this area is full of al-Qaida operatives who are not
satisfied with our successful work with the Americans," he said. "I
cannot rule out that the enemy is trying to sow seeds of division between us
and the Americans." He vowed to keep up the
fight against al-Qaida, but said his fighters would break their alliance with
Americans if civilian deaths continued. "Such actions could have
a negative impact on our joint work to root out al-Qaida," he warned. Kareem Talea Hamad, a cousin
of one of those killed Tuesday, said he watched the raid from his house
across the street, and gave an account that differed from the American
military's initial reports. Hamad said U.S. soldiers
opened the house's door and opened fire at once, killing its unarmed
residents: father Ali Hamad Shihab, 55, his wife Naeimah Ali Sulaiman, 40,
and their son Diaa Ali, who was a member of the local Awakening Council. Two other daughters were
wounded and taken to hospitals, and one died Tuesday morning, Hamad said. An
Iraqi police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't
authorized to release the information, supported Hamad's account. A surviving daughter, Nawal
Ali, 16, said that she was in the house at the time of the raid, and that an
Iraqi interpreter working for U.S. forces tried to stop the American soldiers
from killing her parents. The unidentified interpreter
rushed into the house after he heard gunshots, Ali said. "He shouted at
the Americans, saying `What the heck are you are doing?'" she said,
adding he then pushed the troops away from the children. American and Iraqi
commanders say the Sunni uprising has helped drive al-Qaida from the belts
around Baghdad and forced extremists to hunt for new havens in northern Iraq.
As areas have been cleared, more evidence of the brutality of the terror
network has been uncovered. U.S.-backed tribesmen and
police said they discovered about 50 bodies in a mass grave in a former
al-Qaida stronghold near Lake Tharthar, an area northwest of Baghdad where
hundreds of bodies have been unearthed in recent months. A suicide bomber also struck
the convoy of a sheik working with U.S. forces Tuesday in Taji, 12 miles
north of Baghdad, killing his nephew and another follower, police and the
sheik said. In a separate development, a
new Iraqi flag - without the three green stars of Saddam Hussein's ousted
Baath party - was hoisted Tuesday over the Iraqi Cabinet building in Baghdad
in a symbolic break with the past. The Iraqi Oil Ministry
accused Iran of overpumping in a shared field about 200 miles southeast of
Baghdad. An official at Iraq's South
Oil Company, which is controled by the ministry, claimed Iran was pumping oil
from their portion of the al-Fakkah field at such high rates that nine of 22
wells in Iraqi territory have been left inoperable. He further said the
Iranians are blocking Iraqi repair crews from reaching the nine wells. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information. On Monday, the state-run
al-Sabah daily said Iraq's Foreign Affairs Ministry had sent a protest note
to Tehran. Associated Press writer Sameer
N. Yacoub contributed to this report. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8UKCJD81 |