Nickdfresh
03-21-2006, 07:20 PM
U.S. probes charge troops killed Iraqi family
Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:56 PM GMT
By Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD (Reuters) (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-21T125618Z_01_L16759169_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ.xml) - The U.S. military said on Tuesday it was investigating Iraqi police allegations that its soldiers shot dead a family of 11 in their home last week.
Soldiers said they killed four people, including a militant.
The probe comes a day after a magazine published allegations that U.S. Marines killed 15 civilians in another town last year. A criminal inquiry into those deaths was launched last week.
Time magazine ran accounts by townspeople saying troops went on a rampage after a Marine was killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha, west of Baghdad, in November. The witnesses rejected an original U.S. account that the 15 also died in the bomb blast.
"I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head," one child said. "Then they killed my granny."
In one of their biggest attacks on Iraqi forces, insurgents stormed the police headquarters and another official building in the town of Miqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday, killing at least 22 people, mostly policemen.
Ten suspected Sunni Arab insurgents were also killed, but the attackers freed 33 prisoners, an Interior Ministry source said, adding that 15 police and nine civilians had been killed.
A police source put the death toll at 18 police, four civilians and one gunman.
The governor of Diyala province, which has a volatile ethnic and sectarian mix and has seen many al Qaeda attacks in recent months, had the police chief and other officers arrested.
He suspected them of complicity in the dawn raid, which police said involved about 100 fighters and lasted an hour.
Forces scrambling to the aid of the besieged units were also targeted. Two policemen were killed when a roadside bomb blasted their patrol as it raced from nearby Baquba. In a separate bombing in that city, two other policemen were killed.
PILGRIMS
The violence came as Shi'ite pilgrims, estimated by local officials to number over two million, concluded the rites of Arbain in the holy city of Kerbala and began to head for home.
The two-day mourning ceremony passed off with little incident, guarded by thousands of Iraqi police and troops.
With Iraq teetering on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a month ago, U.S. and Iraqi forces have been on high alert.
Holidays for Arbain and the Kurdish spring festival of Nowruz have held up negotiations on a national unity government that Iraqi and U.S. leaders say is vital to defuse the crisis.
Marking the third anniversary on Monday of the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, President George W. Bush vowed not to abandon Iraq and tried to counter fears among Americans and Iraqis that the communal violence was spiralling into civil war.
"In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," he said.
The chaos in Iraq is a major factor in Bush's plunging poll ratings, the lowest of his presidency.
"Three years ago, we did not expect things to get this bad," former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi told Reuters on Tuesday, saying a strong national unity government was imperative.
Allawi, seen in Washington as a tough, pro-U.S., secular figure, is widely tipped to take on a powerful new role as head of a Security Council that will oversee all major issues.
Political sources say agreement on the council could provide a way around the deadlock on forming the cabinet itself.
INVESTIGATIONS
The U.S. military said on Tuesday it was investigating the discrepancies between police and U.S. army accounts of an incident in the town of Ishaqi, north of Baghdad, on Wednesday.
Police accused U.S. troops of shooting dead 11 people, including five children, while the military said only four people were killed in all. "Because of that discrepancy, we have opened an investigation," said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a senior U.S. spokesman in Baghdad.
Local police Colonel Farouq Hussein said autopsies had found that all the victims were shot in the head. "It's a clear and perfect crime without any doubt," he added.
Accusations that U.S. soldiers often kill civilians and that little disciplinary action has resulted in the few cases investigated have fuelled Iraqi anger since the invasion.
Like Ishaqi, near Samarra, Haditha in western Anbar province is in an area that has seen much Sunni Arab insurgent activity.
U.S. military officials confirmed that an account from U.S. Marines in November of 15 civilians being killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha was wrong and that the civilians were shot.
Time magazine said this week that video of the corpses it provided to the military in January had prompted the revision.
(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy, Mariam Karouny, Aseel Kami and Ross Colvin in Baghdad and Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala)
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:56 PM GMT
By Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD (Reuters) (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-21T125618Z_01_L16759169_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ.xml) - The U.S. military said on Tuesday it was investigating Iraqi police allegations that its soldiers shot dead a family of 11 in their home last week.
Soldiers said they killed four people, including a militant.
The probe comes a day after a magazine published allegations that U.S. Marines killed 15 civilians in another town last year. A criminal inquiry into those deaths was launched last week.
Time magazine ran accounts by townspeople saying troops went on a rampage after a Marine was killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha, west of Baghdad, in November. The witnesses rejected an original U.S. account that the 15 also died in the bomb blast.
"I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head," one child said. "Then they killed my granny."
In one of their biggest attacks on Iraqi forces, insurgents stormed the police headquarters and another official building in the town of Miqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday, killing at least 22 people, mostly policemen.
Ten suspected Sunni Arab insurgents were also killed, but the attackers freed 33 prisoners, an Interior Ministry source said, adding that 15 police and nine civilians had been killed.
A police source put the death toll at 18 police, four civilians and one gunman.
The governor of Diyala province, which has a volatile ethnic and sectarian mix and has seen many al Qaeda attacks in recent months, had the police chief and other officers arrested.
He suspected them of complicity in the dawn raid, which police said involved about 100 fighters and lasted an hour.
Forces scrambling to the aid of the besieged units were also targeted. Two policemen were killed when a roadside bomb blasted their patrol as it raced from nearby Baquba. In a separate bombing in that city, two other policemen were killed.
PILGRIMS
The violence came as Shi'ite pilgrims, estimated by local officials to number over two million, concluded the rites of Arbain in the holy city of Kerbala and began to head for home.
The two-day mourning ceremony passed off with little incident, guarded by thousands of Iraqi police and troops.
With Iraq teetering on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a month ago, U.S. and Iraqi forces have been on high alert.
Holidays for Arbain and the Kurdish spring festival of Nowruz have held up negotiations on a national unity government that Iraqi and U.S. leaders say is vital to defuse the crisis.
Marking the third anniversary on Monday of the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, President George W. Bush vowed not to abandon Iraq and tried to counter fears among Americans and Iraqis that the communal violence was spiralling into civil war.
"In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," he said.
The chaos in Iraq is a major factor in Bush's plunging poll ratings, the lowest of his presidency.
"Three years ago, we did not expect things to get this bad," former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi told Reuters on Tuesday, saying a strong national unity government was imperative.
Allawi, seen in Washington as a tough, pro-U.S., secular figure, is widely tipped to take on a powerful new role as head of a Security Council that will oversee all major issues.
Political sources say agreement on the council could provide a way around the deadlock on forming the cabinet itself.
INVESTIGATIONS
The U.S. military said on Tuesday it was investigating the discrepancies between police and U.S. army accounts of an incident in the town of Ishaqi, north of Baghdad, on Wednesday.
Police accused U.S. troops of shooting dead 11 people, including five children, while the military said only four people were killed in all. "Because of that discrepancy, we have opened an investigation," said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a senior U.S. spokesman in Baghdad.
Local police Colonel Farouq Hussein said autopsies had found that all the victims were shot in the head. "It's a clear and perfect crime without any doubt," he added.
Accusations that U.S. soldiers often kill civilians and that little disciplinary action has resulted in the few cases investigated have fuelled Iraqi anger since the invasion.
Like Ishaqi, near Samarra, Haditha in western Anbar province is in an area that has seen much Sunni Arab insurgent activity.
U.S. military officials confirmed that an account from U.S. Marines in November of 15 civilians being killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha was wrong and that the civilians were shot.
Time magazine said this week that video of the corpses it provided to the military in January had prompted the revision.
(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy, Mariam Karouny, Aseel Kami and Ross Colvin in Baghdad and Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala)
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.