U.S. says 3 women killed in Iraq raid
Accounts vary on the number killed but confirm a child was wounded at a suspected insurgent house north of Baghdad. Demands could increase for U.S. forces to be subject to Iraqi prosecution.
BAGHDAD -- U.S. forces acknowledged killing three women today during a raid on a suspected insurgent house north of Baghdad, but Iraqis said eight people died and all were members of a family with no ties to terrorism.
The incident is likely to heighten Iraqi demands that U.S. forces be subject to Iraqi prosecution for alleged crimes or mistakes that harm civilians. The demand has emerged as the key issue blocking U.S.-Iraqi agreement on a plan that would govern activities of American forces in Iraq after Dec. 31, 2008.
Immunity has increasingly been a hot-button issue since September 2007, when 17 Iraqis were killed by guards working for Blackwater Worldwide, the North Carolina company that protects U.S. State Department employees. Although Blackwater guards are not military, many Iraqis said the incident underscored the need to hold armed American forces liable for behavior that harms innocent Iraqis.
A U.S. military statement said today's shootings occurred in Ad Dawr, about 70 miles northwest of Baghdad in Salahuddin province, as American forces pursued a suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist. The man was believed to operate a network responsible for suicide bombings and to have been an associated of the insurgent group's emir in Diyala province.
After arriving at the suspect's house, soldiers circled the building and called on occupants to surrender, the statement said. After about an hour, "an armed man appeared in the doorway." He was shot dead and later determined to be the suspected insurgent, according to the statement.
Helicopters called in to support the ground troops killed three additional "terrorist suspects," and three women also were killed, the military said. It said U.S. forces took an Iraqi child wounded in the incident to a nearby base for medical care.
Iraqis gave a different account.
An Iraqi police official in Al Dawr said three women and five men, all members of the family of Ali Hassan Ali, were killed during a 2 a.m. raid.
Khalil Mohammed Douri, who lives nearby, said he was sleeping on his roof because of the stifling heat inside when he was awoken by helicopters hovering nearby. He heard American forces using loudspeakers to tell the occupants of the other house, about 300 feet away from his, to come outside.
"Suddenly I saw a woman and a man leaving the house. I saw the Americans opening fire at them and killing them," said Douri. He said the house then was destroyed by fire from above.
