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Iraqis Blame US for Deaths of Eight Backing American Effort    [

    Iraqi Guards Leave Posts Near Baghdad
    By Tina Susman and Cesar Ahmed
    The Los Angeles Times

    Sunday 17 February 2008

Members of the Sons of Iraq security corps stage a walkout to protest US airstrikes they say have killed 12 civilians this month.

    Baghdad - U.S.-allied security forces said Saturday that they were abandoning their posts in a volatile area south of Baghdad to protest airstrikes by American forces that they say have killed at least 12 civilians this month.

    The walkout followed an airstrike Friday near the town of Jarf Sakhr that tribal leaders said killed three members of the civilian security volunteers credited with helping reduce violence across Iraq. The U.S. military said Friday that helicopters responding to gunfire near Jarf Sakhr fired rockets at a building, but it did not say whether there were casualties.

    On Feb. 2, nine Iraqis, including three members of the volunteer group, known as Sons of Iraq, were killed in the same area by an errant airstrike that the U.S. military has acknowledged.

    Majeed Janabi, a tribal leader in the area who worked with U.S. forces to establish checkpoints manned by the fighters there, said he did not believe the shootings were a mistake. He said that in Friday's attack, the helicopter landed and U.S. forces fired on the guards.

    "The U.S. forces stepped out of their choppers and killed our [forces]," he said. "That means they had time to look at them and their uniforms."

    The U.S. military pays the security volunteers, formerly known as concerned local citizens or Awakening Councils, about $10 a day and gives them vests to make them easy to identify. Previously, U.S. officials have said accidental shootings occurred when volunteers were not wearing their vests and were mistaken for insurgents. But some volunteers say there aren't enough vests to go around.

    "When we signed the contract with the U.S. forces, it was dependent on working jointly with them," Janabi said. "If they want us to come back, we will, but we need to make another contract that will guarantee our rights and prevent a repeat of such mistakes."

    Police in Babil province said about 2,000 of the volunteers had left their posts in Jarf Sakhr and nearby villages Saturday night.

    The corps has an estimated 80,000 members across the country, bolstering security in areas without adequate police protection.

    Also Saturday, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees said he would send a special representative to Iraq to help resettle people returning home after five years of war. The announcement was a sign of the United Nations' growing confidence in the country's security, but also an acknowledgment that an influx of returnees could spark new conflict if there is no one there to oversee it.

    The commissioner, Antonio Guterres, said at a news conference that in addition to naming a special representative, his office soon would increase its staff in Iraq from two to five.

    "It is here that the essential work needs to be done, in close cooperation with the government," Guterres said.

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    A special correspondent in Hillah contributed to this report.

 

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    Iraqis Blame US for Deaths of Eight Backing American Effort
    By Alissa J. Rubin
    The New York Times

    Sunday 17 February 2008

    Baghdad - Leaders in two Iraqi villages denounced American troops on Saturday for what they described as the killings of an Iraqi family and three other people who were working with the Americans against the insurgents.

    In one of the villages, Zab, nearly 1,000 mourners flocked Saturday to the funeral of family members of a sheik who died in an attack there. T American military has denied having operations in the area at the time.

    At least five people were killed there Thursday night.

    In the other village, Jurf al Sukr, a number of Iraqi guardsmen quit Saturday to protest the killings. The America military said it was investigating, but indicated that its troops had been fired upon and returned fire.

    Three people were killed there early Friday.

    The killings were the latest in a series of claims of mistaken attacks by American forces on the informal Iraqi allies known as Awakening Councils. In some of these cases, it remains unclear precisely what happened.

    The American military has acknowledged the accidental killings of more than 25 people in Taji in November, and several members of an Awakening group near Iskandariya this month.

    In a disputed case, six men who were said to be Awakening Council members and two women were killed near Raween in Salahuddin Province early Thursday. The Iraqi police and the American military say the Americans were fired on first.

    The Awakening Councils are locally organized so it is often difficult to verify someone's membership from a distance.

    There were varying accounts of the killings in Zab, which is in the rough mountainous area that stretches between Mosul, Kirkuk and Bayji in northern Iraq. However, a sheik who lived next door to the family who was attacked said five people had been killed there and 13 arrested.

    The sheik, Kudair al-Jubori, said that after dinner, his neighbor's daughter "went out of her house and was shot by a sniper in the head, leg and stomach."

    "She screamed, and her 11-year-old daughter heard her mother, and she ran to her and got shot, too," Sheik Jubori said. "Then the woman's brother-in-law, who was 40 years old, came out and he was killed."

    Soon after, the woman's uncle emerged carrying a gun and was killed. A fifth person was killed as well, Sheik Jubori said.

    The dead woman's husband had been killed previously by insurgents, he said.

    He added, "They could have warned the locals with loudspeakers that they are Americans and came to chase terrorists and not treat locals as if they were terrorists or crooks."

    Local leaders said that as the community gathered Saturday to mourn the dead, American officers came to apologize.

    "As the Americans approached the mourners, those who were grieving wore expressions of sadness and hatred," said Sheik Muhammad Abdullah al-Jubori, a retired English teacher. "I was afraid that some of them might attack the coming force, or even refuse to receive them. But since we are antiterrorism warriors, and in order to prove our good intentions, we were patient and used dialogue and understanding, but in a hard, upset and angry language."

    The villagers said the soldiers came from a base near Hawija, west of Kirkuk.

    Jurf al Sukr, where the three Awakening members were killed, is in Babil Province, about 30 miles south of Baghdad. The Americans said they had returned fire there; however, they seemed unaware that there had been an Awakening Council checkpoint there.

    Abu Abbas, a policeman in Mussayib, a nearby town, said the bodies from Jurf al Sukr were brought there early Saturday "riddled with bullets."

    He said they were wearing clothing that identified them as Awakening Council members. In many places, Awakening members wear bright orange vests.

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    Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Kirkuk and Hilla.