U.S. raid kills eight, including four womenBy David Rising
The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, September 28, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - American troops killed eight people - four of them women - after taking heavy fire during a raid Wednesday on a suspected terrorist's house northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
But relatives of the dead disputed the U.S. account, saying their family had nothing to do with any terrorist group.
Outside the pockmarked house, which relatives said belonged to Mohammed Jassim, bullet casings littered the ground and blood stained the sand. Family members cried and consoled one another as the bodies of the women were taken away.
``This is an ugly criminal act by the U.S. soldiers against Iraqi citizens,'' said Manal Jassim, who lost her parents and other relatives in the attack.
advertisement
Iraq's major Sunni clerical organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, condemned the raid as a ``terrorist massacre.''
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/09/28/a2.int.iraq.0928.p1.php?section=nation_worldU.S. to investigate use of force in raid
8 killed in air strike that witnesses say was unprovoked Los Angeles Times
Thursday, September 28, 2006
(09-28) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- The U.S. military said it planned to investigate whether appropriate force was used when soldiers called in an air strike early Wednesday during a raid that left eight Iraqis dead.
Four men and four women were killed in the predawn clash at a house in Baquba, a center of insurgent fighting 35 miles north of the capital.
A written statement released by the Army on Wednesday said the house was targeted in a raid as troops searched for a suspected terrorist.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a briefing Wednesday that the troops called in an air strike after encountering small-arms fire.
"It was an escalation of force that occurred," Caldwell said. "They did, in fact, ask for the people to come out of the home. They did not do that. Instead, they returned fire on the security forces."
But surviving family members and other witnesses said the attack was unprovoked. A teenage girl said her parents, brother and pregnant sister-in-law were among the dead, and that she saw her family gunned down by the soldiers.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/28/MNGT5LE3Q71.DTL&feed=rss.news