US soldiers accused of killing Iraqi civilians

An Iraqi couple and their son, 19, have been killed when US soldiers stormed a tiny one-room house north of Baghdad. The US military says its troops killed the two men in self-defense after gunfire came from the house, but local people say the victims were unarmed. At least one of the couple's daughters was also wounded in the raid, in the village of al-Dawr, near Tikrit. The military said it was unclear who had fired at the female casualties and the incident is being investigated. A cousin of those killed in al-Dawr (about 110 miles north of Baghdad) said he watched the killings from his house across the street. Karim Hamad told the Associated Press that on the of Feb. 4, US soldiers opened the door to the house and immediately opened fire, killing or injuring its unarmed occupants. He identified the dead as Ali Hamad Shihab, 55, and his wife Naima Sulaiman, 40, and their son Diya, who was a member of a US-backed anti-insurgent militia. He said the two wounded daughters were transported to hospitals and one of them had died. An Iraqi police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed Hamad's account. On the same day, the military said US troops had killed nine civilians, including a child, in an air raid south of Baghdad on Feb. 2. In a statement, it said the civilian deaths occurred near the town of Iskandariya, 30 miles from the Iraqi capital. It added that three more civilians, two of them children, were wounded. Witnesses say 20 people were killed in a US air strike in the area. They said the dead included 17 members of the same family. In a statement, the US military said: "The incident is under investigation. We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life."