Baghdad - Salahaddin province deputy governor denounced on
Friday a US forces raid in the northern Iraqi province, which left
eight people dead, describing the operation as 'tragic'.
'Early excuses presented by US troops to al-Dor town police were
rejected,' Abdullah Hussein Jabbara said in a statement to Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa.
Earlier on Friday, witnesses told dpa that US forces killed a
family of eight, including two children, in a helicopter bombing on
their house in Salahaddin province.
Two children and three women were among the victims when the Ali
Taema household in the al-Dor district, 170 kilometres north of
Baghdad, was hit.
'The house is occupied by one family and no one has entered the
house when it was raided. The US forces should have made sure before
destroying the house,' Jabbara explained.
Jabbara demanded US forces to be more careful in the raid
operations 'to avoid the tragic accidents that took place several
times before'.
A spokesman for the US-led forces in Baghdad said it was
targeting terrorists and said the raid had killed at least three
suspects, adding that the US military warned residents repeatedly for
an hour before the raid. He said forces bombed the house when those
inside refused to surrender.
The coalition forces spokesman said the raid had killed three
women and three terrorist suspects, in addition to a child the US
military said it had pulled from the rubble and given medical care.
'Sadly, this incident again shows that the al-Qaeda terrorists
repeatedly risk the lives of innocent women and children to further
their evil work,' Multi-National Forces Spokesperson, Jerry O'Hara
said.
The coalition spokesman said one of the men killed in the raid was
an explosives maker for al-Qaeda.
The US and Iraq are negotiating a long-term security pact that
would regulate US troops in Iraq. One of the most controversial
elements of the pact is the issue of whether US soldiers would be
immune from local prosecution.
In a separate development, unidentified gunmen shot dead a woman
in front of her house in Qada al-Tuz district in Kirkuk, 250
kilometres north-east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, VOI reported. The
gunmen fled to an unknown destination.
Meanwhile, a source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency on
Friday that US forces will release 100 detainees from their jails
near the Baghdad airport on Saturday as part of a programme to free
Iraqi prisoners during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
'US army has released more than 1,000 Iraqis from its jails during
Ramadan in batches,' said Kareem al-Sayab, a media advisor for the US
forces, adding that the total number of Iraqi prisoners in US
detention centres was 18,900, including 150 juveniles and 10 women.
'The release takes place after verifying that those prisoners
would pose no threat to the Iraqi society,' Sayab added.
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