Iraqi Leaders Assail U.S. on Civilian Deaths

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Denouncing what they called repeated acts of violence by American forces against innocent civilians, Iraq's top leaders said today that they would demand that American officials turn over their investigative files on the Iraq deaths in Haditha as they vowed to conduct their own inquiry.

The demand represented a unusual declaration for a new government that remains desperately dependent on American forces to keep some form of order in the country as a resilient insurgency and widespread sectarian violence have pushed it to the brink of civil war.

The move also came as the new Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, lashed out at the American military in the harshest terms anyone in his office has so far used to condemn what he characterized as habitual atrocities against Iraqi civilians. The American-led forces "do not respect the Iraqi people; they crush them by vehicles and kill them by suspicion," Mr. Maliki said. "This is extremely unacceptable." Military and Congressional officials have said they believe an investigation into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, will show that a group of marines shot and killed civilians without justification or provocation.

Witnesses and survivors have said the troops shot men, women and children in the head and chest at close range.
Mr. Maliki's comments were indication of just how much trouble the episode is now causing his two-week-old government. Feuding within his fragile coalition of Sunni Arabs, Shiites, Kurds and secular politicians has so far left the prime minister unable to name interior and defense ministers — the two jobs most crucial to Iraq's security.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1149220800&en=41c12755055ae092&ei=5094&partner=homepage