Iraqi police claim US troops executed civilians

Matthew Schofield, a Knight Ridder reporter in Baghdad, has obtained an Iraqi police report which accuses US troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a six-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid on Mar. 15 on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The villagers were killed after US troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to the police. Then the soldiers burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house. Knight Ridder distributed a copy of the report on Mar. 20. A US military spokesman, Major Tim Keefe, said that the US military has no information to support the allegations and that he had not heard of them before a Knight Ridder reporter brought them to his attention. "We're concerned to hear accusations like that, but it's also highly unlikely that they're true," he said. He added that US forces "take every precaution to keep civilians out of harms' way. The loss of innocent life, especially children, is regrettable." Schofield points out that the report of the latest killings "is unusual because it originated with Iraqi police and because Iraqi police were willing to attach their names to it. "Brig. Gen. Issa al-Juboori, who heads the center, said that his office assembled the report on [Mar. 16] and that it accurately reflects the direction of the current police investigation into the incident." The raid was conducted, according to the US account, in response to a tip that a member of al-Qaida in Iraq was at the house. Neighbors, interviewed by a special correspondent for Knight Ridder, agreed that the al-Qaida member was visiting at the house. The Knight Ridder article continues: "According to police, military and eyewitness accounts, US forces approached the house at around 2:30am and a firefight ensued. By all accounts, in addition to exchanging gunfire with someone inside the house, US troops were supported by helicopter gunships, which fired on the house. "But the accounts differ on what took place after the firefight. "According to the US account, the house collapsed because of the heavy fire. When US forces searched the rubble they found one man, the al-Qaida suspect, alive. He was arrested. They also found a dead man they believed to be connected to al-Qaida, two dead women and a dead child. "But the report filed by the Joint Coordination Center, which was based on a report filed by local police, said US forces entered the house while it was still standing. "'The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 persons, including five children, four women and two men,' the report said. 'Then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals.' "The report identified the dead by name, giving their ages. The two men killed were 22 and 28. Of the women, one was 22, another was 23, a third was 30 and the fourth was 75. Two of the children were five years old, two were three, and the fifth was six months old, the document said."