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US lashes back, claims Iraqi police giving out misinformation
The U.S. military hit back on Wednesday at what it called a "pattern of misinformation" following Iraqi police accusations that its troops shot dead a family of 11 in their home last week.Responding to comments by police and residents in the town of Ishaqi, north of Baghdad, that U.S. officers had failed to attend a meeting on Wednesday about the incident, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a senior spokesman, told Reuters: "There was no meeting scheduled with any Coalition investigators today. There appears to be a distinct pattern of misinformation surrounding this entire incident. "This is another clear sign of that happening, making allegations for the sake of prompting media reporting and attempting to discredit Coalition operations. This is a pattern weve seen the terrorist-backed insurgency use repeatedly." Relations between the U.S. military and Iraqi police in the mainly Sunni area north of Baghdad -- where many including police are sympathetic to the insurgency -- are strained, with police accusing U.S. troops of killing civilians and the military questioning the credibility of the police. The military has launched an investigation into a raid last Wednesday by U.S. forces, in which an al Qaeda suspect was arrested, because of discrepancies between the police account and that of troops, who said only four people were killed. The Ishaqi inquiry was announced days after the launch of a criminal investigation into events in the western town of Haditha in November, when U.S. Marines shot dead 15 civilians. In Ishaqi, police said 11 people including five children under school age were found bound and shot in their home after the U.S. raid. The military said at the time that four people, including a guerrilla fighter, were killed. Local journalists filmed the bodies of five young children, four women and two men who police said were killed in the raid. Johnson said: "We have said repeatedly we know of four people killed after Coalition forces came under direct fire from the house, resulting in a heavy engagement to suppress it. "We heard a barrage of shooting for 20 minutes and then we heard bombs," said Thiya Hussein, who said his cousin was killed. "After the Americans left we went to the house and found 11 people lying in blood together in one room. Five of them were children. They were bound in plastic handcuffs and shot." "The baby, Husam, who was six-months-old, was shot dead. A 75-year-old woman was shot in the head," he told Reuters. Another neighbor, Abbas Abid, said: "The house was damaged and the family was shot and lying in one room. Accusations American soldiers have killed innocent people has fueled anger at the occupation among Iraqis, who complain that little disciplinary action has resulted from inquiries. Near Ishaqi, at Duluiya, police accused U.S. troops of killing a 13-year-old boy and his parents in their home on Sunday, as well as five other people. The military said soldiers killed seven "terrorists" who attacked a patrol with grenades. In July, an investigation was launched into the killing of a cousin of Iraq s U.N. envoy at Haditha. The results are unknown. Military spokesman Johnson said: We do not target non-combatants in our operations, although we repeatedly find insurgents occupying homes that place innocent people in harms way ... However ... if any misconduct is found, those responsible will be held fully accountable." Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-03-23 |
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