Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 26, 2008 By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Riyadh Muhammad
BAGHDAD — American soldiers fatally shot three Iraqi bank employees Wednesday as their car passed a convoy near Baghdad International Airport, according to an Interior Ministry official and Yarmouk Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The attack was one of two bloody episodes on Wednesday in which the American military and Iraqi officials offered sharply different accounts of what had happened.
Iraqi authorities said at least eight civilians had been killed by American soldiers. American military officials said that in each case they opened fire after coming under attack, and that they were unaware of any civilian deaths.
The military also reported on Wednesday that four American soldiers had died in unrelated events. They brought the death toll of American service members this month to 26.
In the shooting near the Baghdad Airport, one of the most tightly guarded locations in Iraq, the American military said “three criminals” fired at soldiers about 8:40 a.m. while their convoy was stopped on the side of the road.
“The soldiers returned fire, which resulted in the vehicle running off the road and striking a wall,” the military said in a written statement. “The vehicle then exploded.” The attack left bullet holes in two of the convoy vehicles, the military said, and a weapon was found in the car, though the statement did not say whether the holes matched the caliber of that weapon.
Officials at the hospital identified the charred bodies of the dead as those of Hafed Abdul Mahdi, director of the bank at the airport, and Surur Shadid Ahmed and Maha Adnan Yunis, women who worked at the bank.
Hours earlier, an American helicopter fired missiles into a home near Tikrit, killing a family of five, local officials and a relative said.
The episode began when Afar Ahmed Zidan thought he heard thieves prowling near his home in the darkness, a cousin, Hussain al-Azawi, said. Mr. Zidan went outside and fired at them, Mr. Azawi said.
But the men in the darkness turned out to be American infantrymen conducting a search, Mr. Azawi said. They returned fire, wounding Mr. Zidan, who rushed inside and frantically called his cousin to alert him to what had happened, Mr. Azawi said. Then the Americans called in an airstrike that killed Mr. Zidan, his wife and three children, all under 10 years old, Mr. Azawi said.
“The Americans shot two rockets into the house,” he said. The rocket strike also wounded three of Mr. Zidan’s neighbors, who were taken to a hospital, he said.
Officials from the local council in Tikrit, about 100 miles north of Baghdad, said Wednesday that they believed five people had been killed in the American airstrike, and that they had sent a representative to attend the funerals.
The American military confirmed an airstrike had taken place, but said an “Al Qaeda terrorist” had fired at the service members. Soldiers surrounded the building where the man was hiding and called for him to come out, the military said, but after perceiving “hostile intent,” they called in the airstrike.
American soldiers and Iraqi police determined that the man had been killed but did not find other victims, the military said. Four women in a neighboring building “sustained only minor injuries,” the military said.
The disputed killings followed a bloody day for American troops elsewhere in Iraq. Three United States soldiers and their interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb in Nineveh Province on Tuesday night, providing more evidence that Sunni Arab guerrillas remain active in Mosul despite recent Iraqi military operations.
Few details of the attack were released by the American military, which said that an improvised explosive device killed the soldiers and interpreter about 10:45 p.m.
On Wednesday, gunmen assassinated the municipal director of Mosul, Khalid Mahmoud, and his driver, the latest in a string of killings of teachers, lawyers and other professionals in the city.
Iraqi troops have fanned out in Mosul to try to quell the insurgency there led by Baathist fighters and Sunni extremist guerrillas. Violence has declined in the city, but officials knowledgeable about the fighting said many of Mosul’s most fearsome guerrillas had been pursued by American Special Operations forces rather than Iraqi soldiers.
Another American soldier was killed Wednesday morning in eastern Baghdad by an explosively formed projectile, a powerful form of roadside bomb.
Ali Hameed contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Salahuddin Province and Mosul.
June 26, 2008 By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Riyadh Muhammad
BAGHDAD — American soldiers fatally shot three Iraqi bank employees Wednesday as their car passed a convoy near Baghdad International Airport, according to an Interior Ministry official and Yarmouk Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The attack was one of two bloody episodes on Wednesday in which the American military and Iraqi officials offered sharply different accounts of what had happened.
Iraqi authorities said at least eight civilians had been killed by American soldiers. American military officials said that in each case they opened fire after coming under attack, and that they were unaware of any civilian deaths.
The military also reported on Wednesday that four American soldiers had died in unrelated events. They brought the death toll of American service members this month to 26.
In the shooting near the Baghdad Airport, one of the most tightly guarded locations in Iraq, the American military said “three criminals” fired at soldiers about 8:40 a.m. while their convoy was stopped on the side of the road.
“The soldiers returned fire, which resulted in the vehicle running off the road and striking a wall,” the military said in a written statement. “The vehicle then exploded.” The attack left bullet holes in two of the convoy vehicles, the military said, and a weapon was found in the car, though the statement did not say whether the holes matched the caliber of that weapon.
Officials at the hospital identified the charred bodies of the dead as those of Hafed Abdul Mahdi, director of the bank at the airport, and Surur Shadid Ahmed and Maha Adnan Yunis, women who worked at the bank.
Hours earlier, an American helicopter fired missiles into a home near Tikrit, killing a family of five, local officials and a relative said.
The episode began when Afar Ahmed Zidan thought he heard thieves prowling near his home in the darkness, a cousin, Hussain al-Azawi, said. Mr. Zidan went outside and fired at them, Mr. Azawi said.
But the men in the darkness turned out to be American infantrymen conducting a search, Mr. Azawi said. They returned fire, wounding Mr. Zidan, who rushed inside and frantically called his cousin to alert him to what had happened, Mr. Azawi said. Then the Americans called in an airstrike that killed Mr. Zidan, his wife and three children, all under 10 years old, Mr. Azawi said.
“The Americans shot two rockets into the house,” he said. The rocket strike also wounded three of Mr. Zidan’s neighbors, who were taken to a hospital, he said.
Officials from the local council in Tikrit, about 100 miles north of Baghdad, said Wednesday that they believed five people had been killed in the American airstrike, and that they had sent a representative to attend the funerals.
The American military confirmed an airstrike had taken place, but said an “Al Qaeda terrorist” had fired at the service members. Soldiers surrounded the building where the man was hiding and called for him to come out, the military said, but after perceiving “hostile intent,” they called in the airstrike.
American soldiers and Iraqi police determined that the man had been killed but did not find other victims, the military said. Four women in a neighboring building “sustained only minor injuries,” the military said.
The disputed killings followed a bloody day for American troops elsewhere in Iraq. Three United States soldiers and their interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb in Nineveh Province on Tuesday night, providing more evidence that Sunni Arab guerrillas remain active in Mosul despite recent Iraqi military operations.
Few details of the attack were released by the American military, which said that an improvised explosive device killed the soldiers and interpreter about 10:45 p.m.
On Wednesday, gunmen assassinated the municipal director of Mosul, Khalid Mahmoud, and his driver, the latest in a string of killings of teachers, lawyers and other professionals in the city.
Iraqi troops have fanned out in Mosul to try to quell the insurgency there led by Baathist fighters and Sunni extremist guerrillas. Violence has declined in the city, but officials knowledgeable about the fighting said many of Mosul’s most fearsome guerrillas had been pursued by American Special Operations forces rather than Iraqi soldiers.
Another American soldier was killed Wednesday morning in eastern Baghdad by an explosively formed projectile, a powerful form of roadside bomb.
Ali Hameed contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Salahuddin Province and Mosul.