ICTJ in the News

February 4, 2008

U.S. accidentally kills nine Iraqis

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Saturday's strike aimed at al-Qaida militants in south

BAGHDAD -- American forces said yesterday they had accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians and wounded three in a strike aimed at militants of al-Qaida south of Baghdad.

A military statement released late in the day said the accidental killings happened Saturday in Iskandariyah, about 25 miles south of the capital, and that the wounded were taken to American military hospitals.

The statement did not further identify the civilian victims, but Iraqi police said American aircraft, responding to an attack on an American convoy, had erroneously bombed Iraqi civilian guardsmen who have contracted with the American military to fight al-Qaida.

Those guardsmen, predominantly Sunnis, are considered a major reason why the American military has successfully reduced insurgent violence in Iraq. But in recent weeks scores of the Sunni guardsmen, known variously as Concerned Local Citizens, Awakening Councils and the Sons of Iraq, have been killed in clashes with Qaida fighters and Shiite militias.

Lt. Patrick Evans, of the Navy, an American military spokesman, said that after the deaths in Iskandariyah, American military officials met with a sheik representing the citizens of the local area and that the mistaken attack was under investigation.

"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent life," Evans said. He said he did not know whether the Iraqi victims were citizen guardsmen or precisely how they had been killed.

In other news:

Soldier killed: The U.S. military said a soldier had been killed Thursday in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Baghdad, raising to at least 40 the number of troop deaths reported in January, nearly double the 23 recorded in December and the largest monthly toll for the Americans since 65 in September.

Noncombat death: A U.S. soldier also died of noncombat causes in Ninevah province in northern Iraq, the military said yesterday. At least 3,945 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Police official dies: Lt. Col. Ahmad Ibrahim, a senior official in Iraq's police commando force, was killed by a bomb placed under his car in the Mansour area of west Baghdad, the police said.

Reconciliation law: A new law intended to reverse the firing of thousands of former Saddam Hussein-era officials during the U.S-led occupation of Iraq has taken effect, Iraq's presidency council announced.

But it was uncertain whether the law would promote reconciliation between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, as the Bush administration hopes.

Key benchmark: The Bush administration has described passage of the law as one of a series of key benchmarks necessary to bring about reconciliation between rival Sunni and Shiite factions and undo the much criticized decision by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to purge Baath members from their positions in government after Saddam's fall.

But an analysis of the legislation by the International Center for Transitional Justice, a New York-based organization that monitors countries' efforts to deal with past human rights violations, said several high-ranking Iraqi officials who held positions under Saddam would probably be forced from their jobs.