herkässä:
U.S. Soldiers Kill 3 Iraqis in Raid.
BAGHDAD — The American military said Tuesday that American troops killed at least two men and a woman, and wounded a child during a raid late Monday in Tikrit in northern Iraq.
Military officials in Baghdad said in a statement that killings happened when American soldiers were fired upon as they attacked what they believed was a “terrorist cell.”
“While entering a building, coalition soldiers were attacked by small arms fire,” the statement said. “The soldiers returned fire. Upon initial inspection, coalition forces discovered two men dead, a woman dead, and an injured child.”
According to Iraqi police, all four casualties were family members living in a tiny one-room house. Ali Hamed Shihab, a 47-year-old farmer, his wife, Naeema Ali, 45, and their son, Dhiaa Ali, 18, were all killed. The wounded child was Mr. Shihab’s 16-year-old daughter.
A fourth family member, an 11-year-old girl, died on Tuesday on the way to the hospital, according to Iraqi authorities.
The house is located in a remote village called Door, about 500 miles north of Baghdad. A reporter for The Associated Press went to the house on Tuesday and saw three bodies and shell-casings on the floor there, and quoted a relative who said she witnessed American soldiers kick open the door and fire their weapons without provocation.
On Sunday, military officials acknowledged that they had mistakenly killed nine Iraqi civilians in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of the capital. Iraqi authorities said that the victims included several checkpoint guardsmen.
The Iraqi Army was also contending with the death under mysterious circumstances of a Mahdi Army militiaman who was being detained at the Amara airport base in southern Iraq.
Munthir al-Mosawi, a 27-year-old member of the Shiite militia founded by militant cleric Moktada al-Sadr, died in custody after being held for three days on a Baghdad arrest warrant. A medical report concluded that Mr. Mosawi died of a “bullet in the head,” according to a military official who read the document.
Iraqi officials gave varying accounts of his death and Sadr representatives threatened to call off a months-long cease-fire that has been credited with a significant reduction in violence in Iraq.
Initial Iraqi Army reports claimed that the Shiite militant committed suicide, but later accounts, including an explanation offered by Defense Ministry spokesman Muhammad al-Askari, said that Mr. Mosawi died while attempting to wrest away a prison guard’s AK-47 machine gun.
“He asked for water to drink,” Mr. Askari said. “When he was unshackled, he grabbed the guard’s rifle and shot himself.”
Brigadier Ali Wahab, Amara’s police commander, created a three-judge committee to investigate the death and announced that a second committee was dispatched to Amara from the capital.
Sheikh Salah al-Obaidi, a senior Sadr representative in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that the death led militia members to reconsider their détente, but that in the end they chose not to retaliate despite their distrust of Iraq’s judiciary institutions.
Still, Sheikh Obaidi warned that the Mahdi Army cease-fire does not extend to tribal retribution.
“The person who was killed is related to a tribe, and it is not necessary to restrain his tribe under the Mahdi Army cease-fire,” he said. “We don’t have the right to stop the reactions that come from the deceased’s brothers and his tribe.”
In other violence in southern Iraq, gunmen in Hilla shot a woman minibus passenger to death on Tuesday and Major Rafa Jawad, a Basra police spokesman, announced that two Shiite religious clerics were kidnapped on Monday.
The kidnappers later contacted the relatives of those abducted and demanded $100,000 for the release of both men.
Employees of The New York Times in Tikrit, Najaf, Amara, and Basra contributed reporting.
U.S. Soldiers Kill 3 Iraqis in Raid.
BAGHDAD — The American military said Tuesday that American troops killed at least two men and a woman, and wounded a child during a raid late Monday in Tikrit in northern Iraq.
Military officials in Baghdad said in a statement that killings happened when American soldiers were fired upon as they attacked what they believed was a “terrorist cell.”
“While entering a building, coalition soldiers were attacked by small arms fire,” the statement said. “The soldiers returned fire. Upon initial inspection, coalition forces discovered two men dead, a woman dead, and an injured child.”
According to Iraqi police, all four casualties were family members living in a tiny one-room house. Ali Hamed Shihab, a 47-year-old farmer, his wife, Naeema Ali, 45, and their son, Dhiaa Ali, 18, were all killed. The wounded child was Mr. Shihab’s 16-year-old daughter.
A fourth family member, an 11-year-old girl, died on Tuesday on the way to the hospital, according to Iraqi authorities.
The house is located in a remote village called Door, about 500 miles north of Baghdad. A reporter for The Associated Press went to the house on Tuesday and saw three bodies and shell-casings on the floor there, and quoted a relative who said she witnessed American soldiers kick open the door and fire their weapons without provocation.
On Sunday, military officials acknowledged that they had mistakenly killed nine Iraqi civilians in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of the capital. Iraqi authorities said that the victims included several checkpoint guardsmen.
The Iraqi Army was also contending with the death under mysterious circumstances of a Mahdi Army militiaman who was being detained at the Amara airport base in southern Iraq.
Munthir al-Mosawi, a 27-year-old member of the Shiite militia founded by militant cleric Moktada al-Sadr, died in custody after being held for three days on a Baghdad arrest warrant. A medical report concluded that Mr. Mosawi died of a “bullet in the head,” according to a military official who read the document.
Iraqi officials gave varying accounts of his death and Sadr representatives threatened to call off a months-long cease-fire that has been credited with a significant reduction in violence in Iraq.
Initial Iraqi Army reports claimed that the Shiite militant committed suicide, but later accounts, including an explanation offered by Defense Ministry spokesman Muhammad al-Askari, said that Mr. Mosawi died while attempting to wrest away a prison guard’s AK-47 machine gun.
“He asked for water to drink,” Mr. Askari said. “When he was unshackled, he grabbed the guard’s rifle and shot himself.”
Brigadier Ali Wahab, Amara’s police commander, created a three-judge committee to investigate the death and announced that a second committee was dispatched to Amara from the capital.
Sheikh Salah al-Obaidi, a senior Sadr representative in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that the death led militia members to reconsider their détente, but that in the end they chose not to retaliate despite their distrust of Iraq’s judiciary institutions.
Still, Sheikh Obaidi warned that the Mahdi Army cease-fire does not extend to tribal retribution.
“The person who was killed is related to a tribe, and it is not necessary to restrain his tribe under the Mahdi Army cease-fire,” he said. “We don’t have the right to stop the reactions that come from the deceased’s brothers and his tribe.”
In other violence in southern Iraq, gunmen in Hilla shot a woman minibus passenger to death on Tuesday and Major Rafa Jawad, a Basra police spokesman, announced that two Shiite religious clerics were kidnapped on Monday.
The kidnappers later contacted the relatives of those abducted and demanded $100,000 for the release of both men.
Employees of The New York Times in Tikrit, Najaf, Amara, and Basra contributed reporting.
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