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U.S. Accused of Killing 5 Iraqi Civilians
[June 14, 2003]
By BORZOU DARAGAHI, Associated Press Writer
ELHEER, Iraq - Gathered in tents, Iraqi villagers wailed and recited Islamic verses Saturday to mourn a 70-year-old farmer, three of his sons and another relative--civilians they say U.S. forces mistakenly killed in their hunt for Saddam Hussein loyalists.
Though the military gave no comment on the civilian deaths, the shootings fueled growing anger over what Iraqis describe as insensitive American behavior, from soldiers not removing their shoes before entering homes to search for weapons to the intrusion of low-flying helicopters and roaring tanks.
Saad Hashem, an elder in the village of Elheer, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, said U.S. occupiers were turning people against them.
"Before the toppling of Saddam's regime, the Americans said they were coming to liberate Iraq," Harem said. "We welcomed them. Many innocent people were killed by the Iraqi regime. Now the Americans are killing innocent people."
He and other villagers say American soldiers shot Ali Jassem and his family early Friday as the men worked in their wheat fields to extinguish fires set by U.S. flares.
Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division had been chasing Iraqi militants after a midnight Thursday ambush of a U.S. tank column on a country road about a mile from Jassem's field. The ambush in the rural Balud region was the latest in a rising number of guerrilla and sniping attacks that have killed dozens of American soldiers since the war ended May 1.
Sheltered from the searing heat, about 40 mourners gathered in tents outside the Jassem family's mud-brick house. International television footage showed grieving women, dressed in long black robes and head scarves, weeping and clutching white handkerchiefs to their mouths.
Elheer is a Shiite village set in an area north and west of Baghdad known as the Sunni triangle, where Saddam _ himself a Sunni Muslim _ drew most of his support. The area has been the focus of the U.S. military sweep for remnants of Saddam's ousted regime and other anti-American fighters.
A neighbor, Jaafer Obeid, told The Associated Press that the Jassem and his relatives had gone "to put out the fire and save the sheep and cattle ... The Americans started to open fire on them because they thought they were attackers."
Aggressive U.S. action was likely to escalate after the midnight Saturday expiration of an amnesty for Iraqis who turn in weapons. Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of the coalition ground forces, told reporters to expect a dramatic increase in weapons seizures and other actions against those who refuse to disarm.
The U.S. military said it killed about 100 pro-Saddam holdouts and foreign volunteers in two separate battles this week, including what officials said were 27 attackers who ambushed the two-tank patrol in Balud.
But that version was in dispute, with officers at the scene saying the death toll was lower, perhaps five or seven.
This week's casualties also included about 70 fighters killed in a combined air and ground assault at what the Central Command called a "terrorist training camp" near the Syrian border. Pentagon officials said many of the dead were foreign volunteers, including fighters from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan.
A U.S. statement on the tank ambush did not mention civilian casualties. Spokesmen for the Central Command and for Sustainer Army Airfield, the base from which the tank patrol originated, refused to respond to allegations of civilian deaths.
In its account, the U.S. Central Command said forces killed four assailants after militants ambushed the tank column with rocket-propelled grenades. Bradley fighting vehicles and Apache helicopters joined the pursuit of the fleeing attackers, hunting down and killing another 23.
Asked about the discrepancy in death tolls, Lt. Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, would not confirm civilian casualties but said: "If they're wearing civilian clothing and shooting weapons at you, they are not classified as civilians."
In Elheer, villagers also complained about the U.S. soldiers' decision to take the bodies away. Hashem, the elder, said troops threatened not to return the bodies unless villagers identified the bodies of two others, apparently guerrillas, also shot in the fighting.
"We pleaded with them. We said we don't know who they are," he said. "Eventually, they relented and gave the bodies back."
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AP reporter Borzou Daragahi in Elheer contributed to this report.
Original URL: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20030614/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_fighting_47
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