U.S. Forces Accused of Killing Relatives of Iraqi Ally

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Washington Post

BAGHDAD, Feb. 15 -- Residents and officials in a rural area of northern Iraq said U.S. forces on Thursday night killed six relatives of the head of a Sunni tribal group that has allied itself with the Americans, but the U.S. military said it had received no reports of such an incident.

In the Zaab area, west of Kirkuk, hundreds of people took to the streets to mourn the dead, who included a woman and a child, and to demand that U.S. forces release the tribal leader, who local officials say was detained in the assault.

"There was a great mistake that took place last night and pushed the American forces to commit a massacre against this family, which supported the security and the stability and was a victim of the terrorists," said Col. Muhammad Muhsin Jumaa al-Jubouri, the Zaab police chief.

The incident was one of several in recent days in which American forces may have inadvertently killed civilians and U.S.-backed tribesmen. The episodes illustrate the murky line between friend and foe in Iraq and the difficulty of carrying out precise raids on suspected targets.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021503598.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Well it's not like it's white people they are killing (sarcasm)

Dick Cheney sees this as a win-win situation. The more Iraqis get killed, the less Iraqis there will be to lay claim to all that oil he wants for his oil industry pals.

[leftchick]

2. shoot the women and children first!

sickening.....



According to officials and witness accounts, the attack in Zaab took place after 10 p.m. Thursday when the U.S. military began an operation nearby with air support from four helicopters. Hemood al-Sabiel, a resident who sobbed as he described the assault, said U.S. troops entered the area after one of their helicopters came under attack.

When Latifa Abdullah al-Sabiel, 33, went outside to wash dishes, an American soldier shot and killed her, he and other witnesses said. When Sabiel's 11-year-old daughter ran out after her, she was killed, too, they said.

Then two men, Ajeel Shafiq and Falah Abdullah, 28, the brother of the tribal leader, went out with guns but were also shot, witnesses said. Jafar Najeeb, 23, their cousin and a member of the Awakening, ran out with a gun and began shooting at the source of the gunfire, the witnesses said.

"He thought that it was al-Qaeda attacking them, and he did not know that they were American soldiers because he did not see them," Sabiel said.

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