U.S. mistake kills 9 in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Nine people were killed and four were injured in an errant U.S. airstrike southeast of Baghdad, the military said Sunday.

One child was among the dead, and two children were among the injured, said U.S. Army Maj. Brad Leighton.

"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident," Leighton said. "We mourn the loss of innocent life."

The news came the same day the military announced that a U.S. soldier was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade Thursday in eastern Baghdad. The identity of the soldier was not released pending notification of next of kin. At least 3,945 American troops have been killed in Iraq since the conflict began in March 2003, according to the independent website icasualties.org.

At least three members of a so-called concerned local citizens group were among the dead in the mistaken airstrike, according to a U.S. military source. The citizens groups are mostly Sunni Arab security forces organized and paid by the U.S. military in hopes that many will eventually be integrated into the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces.

The airstrike comes at a time when members of the groups, typically paid $10 a day, are coming under deadly attacks by Al Qaeda in Iraq and other militants because of their affiliation with the U.S. The volunteers have received significant praise for their role in the improved security in many areas of the country.

The airstrike occurred late Saturday when the military spotted what it believed to be a team of insurgents readying a roadside bomb in a rural area 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, the military source said.

A U.S. aircraft bombed a house that the suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents were believed to have entered. A search later revealed that the bomb site was actually a concerned local citizens checkpoint, the military source said.

Mohammed Ghrairi, the local citizens commander in the area, said a U.S. military colonel immediately visited him to issue an apology. News of the incident was not released to the media, however, until the military was contacted by The Times.

In other news, Iraq's three-member presidency council said Sunday that it had issued a new law that would allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to government.

The law, however, was issued over the objections of Vice President Tariq Hashimi, the Sunni Arab member of the council.