Iraq's PM assails US for routinely killing civilians

In the wake of revelations about a civilian massacre by US Marines in Haditha, Iraq, last November, US troops faced a barrage of accusations of more unlawful killings of civilians this week. The Iraqi Islamic Party, the main Sunni Arab political party, accused US forces of murdering more than two dozen Iraqis in a series of incidents across the country in May. "The US forces have violated human rights many times across Iraq," said Omar al-Juburi, spokesman for the human rights section of the party led by Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi. Juburi said 29 Iraqis were killed in May in separate incidents in the towns of Latifiyah and Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad, and in the capital itself. "On May 13, US forces launched an air assault on a civilian car in Latifiyah and killed six people," Juburi told reporters. "On the same day US aircraft attacked the house of a civilian, Saadun Mohsen Hassan, and killed seven members of his family." Juburi said US forces carried out another air strike the next day on the house of Sheikh Yassin Saleh Shallal in Yusifiyah, "killing 13 people–including women and children." Three other Iraqis were killed in US raids in Baghdad, he said. A few days before Juburi spoke, the Iraqi government had reacted furiously to a ruling that cleared US forces of executing a family of civilians in Ishaqi earlier this year, and pledged to continue its own inquiries into allegations of US war crimes. A US military investigation last weekend cleared US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people–including five children and four women–in a house in the village of Ishaqi, before blowing up the building. But Iraq rejected the US exoneration of its own forces. Anger over the incident has raised tensions even further between the US government and the Iraqi administration it backs. Relations deteriorated throughout the week after a series of revelations and claims of criminal behavior by US forces. The bulk of the allegations surrounded the massacre in Haditha. But it was the US military's finding regarding the Ishaqi killings that enraged Iraqis this week. "We have [heard] from more than one source that the Ishaqi killings were carried out under questionable circumstances. More than one child was killed. This report was not fair for the Iraqi people and the children who were killed," said an aide to Nuri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister. The US military had issued a statement about Ishaqi saying allegations that US troops "executed a family... and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false." It said troops had been fired on as they raided a house to arrest an "al-Qaida" suspect. They returned fire and called in air support, which destroyed the building, killing one militant and resulting in "up to nine collateral deaths." The military had previously said one guerrilla, two women and a child were killed in the raid in Ishaqi on Mar. 15. Issa Khalaf Harat, a lieutenant colonel in Iraq's oil protection police and the brother of one of the victims, lived near the house that was raided. He said he and his family were terrified by the early morning raid, hiding and listening to gunfire for an hour before missiles or bombs from two jets struck the house. Afterward, Harat said, they came out and he looked for his brother and his family, only to find them buried in the rubble, wrapped in clean blankets with gunshot wounds to their heads. He said he wanted to see an independent US investigation not conducted by the military. "We know they were not terrorists, they were not shooting at the Americans, and they were killed in cold blood," he said. "Where are the terrorists? Are they the old lady or the kids? It looks like the lives of Iraqis are worthless." The outcome of the Pentagon investigation emerged a day after video footage was broadcast by international news agencies that appears to show the aftermath of US action in Ishaqi. The video shows a number of dead adults and children at the site. The footage shows at least five children dead, four of whom appeared to have bullet wounds to the head. "America is forcing us to go and join the resistance," said Ahmed Hussein, a cousin of one of the victims. "If this goes on like this, in the end we will find ourselves forced to fight the Americans." Maliki, who took office two weeks ago at the helm of a US-backed national government, is battling a growing perception that US troops can shoot and kill with impunity. He has already expressed his anger about Haditha, describing it as a "horrible crime" and has accused US troops of habitually attacking unarmed civilians, "daily." Violence against civilians is "common among many of the multinational forces," the new Iraqi prime minister said. Many troops had "no respect for citizens, smashing civilian cars and killing on a suspicion or a hunch." "They run them over and leave them, or they kill anyone suspicious. This cannot be accepted," Maliki said. The investigations into events in Haditha appear set to return a far more damning verdict than the Ishaqi inquiry. Marines stand accused of deliberately killing 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19 after one of their party died when a roadside bomb went off. There are two investigations into the Haditha killings, one of which is looking into allegations that senior officers covered up evidence that the civilians were shot in cold blood. Hibbah Abdullah, a resident of Haditha, said that she was in her house when Marines entered and killed her husband, aunt and father-in-law–the last, she said, with a hand grenade placed in his lap. "I'm only living in indescribable misery and sadness," she said. "The savagery by which they have taken their lives, it is not going away. I'm not able to forget it; it is always in my mind." As the gruesome details of Haditha emerged, another case presented itself after a pregnant woman in labor and her cousin were killed by a hail of gunfire in Samarra on May 31 when their car failed to stop at a US checkpoint on their way to a hospital. The US military has ordered all 150,000 troops in Iraq to undergo a crash course in battlefield morals, values and ethics within the next month, as it tries to repair its image. Gen. George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, called for emergency tutorials in "warrior values" after leaks from the Haditha investigation. The US military announced that commanders had been directed "to conduct core warrior values training, highlighting the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield." The training will be based on "a slide presentation with training vignettes." A report by the Wall Street Journal this week said that US troops mistakenly killed as many as seven Iraqi civilians a week at checkpoints last summer.