WASHINGTON — Iraq's new ambassador to the United States was officially received by President Bush at the White House on Tuesday, and hours later accused U.S. troops of killing his unarmed cousin and then conducting a flawed investigation.
Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, renewing an allegation he first made last summer, said U.S. troops killed his cousin Mohammed, 21, in the course of house-to-house searches in the western Iraqi town of Haditha on June 25, 2005.
Haditha is now the focus of a major U.S. military investigation into allegations that Marines killed as many as 24 Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in a separate incident last November. Some lawmakers have warned that the case could be damaging to the U.S. image abroad, and are examining whether other similar cases might have occurred in western Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, mentioning the November killings for the first time, told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday that deaths of innocent civilians were not acceptable.
"It is not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists," Maliki said.
Sumaidy also was critical of U.S. military personnel in the death of his cousin.
"I believe he was killed intentionally; I believe he was killed unnecessarily," Sumaidy said in an interview with CNN. "Unfortunately, the investigation that took place after that sort of took a different course, and concluded that there was no unlawful killing. I would like further investigation."
Sumaidy, who was formerly Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, officially became ambassador to the U.S. when Iraq's new government was formed this month. In a ceremony with Bush, Sumaidy said he was "honored and privileged to serve as the ambassador of free Iraq ... to represent my country to this great country."
But in the televised interview, Sumaidy said the case of his slain cousin had not received appropriate attention from U.S. authorities, even though it had been brought to the attention of top military officials, including Army Gen. George W. Casey, commander of American forces in Iraq.
Sumaidy said his cousin, a second-year engineering student, had let U.S. troops into his house to conduct a search.
"His mother, his siblings were there," Sumaidy said. "He let them into the bedroom of his father and there he was shot."
