US News
No US wrongdoing in Ishaqi deaths, military says
By DPA
Jun 3, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - US soldiers who called a deadly March 15 airstrike on a building in the Iraqi city of Ishaqi did nothing improper, the military said Friday.

Iraqi police alleged that 11 civilians were deliberately shot and killed by US troops. The US military acknowledged that three civilians died in the raid, along with an Iraqi insurgent who was involved in making roadside bombs.

In all, up to nine people may have been killed in the raid, but allegations that US troops 'executed a family ... and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false,' said a spokesman for the US-led multinational force in Iraq.

The conclusions comes amid an investigation into the alleged killings the slaughter of innocent civilians by US Marines in Haditha in November. The US reportedly plans to file criminal charges against some of the Marines over the deaths of 24 men, women and children.

A military inquiry into the Ishaqi deaths concluded that the soldiers correctly escalated force after receiving fire from a building in the city 100 kilometres north of Baghdad, force spokesman Major General William Caldwell IV said in a statement.

'The investigation revealed that the ground force commander, while capturing and killing terrorists, operated in accordance with the rules of engagement governing our combat forces in Iraq,' he said.

The raid's commander first called in helicopters, then an airstrike that destroyed part of the building. The exact number of dead could not be determined because of the damage to the building, the statement said.

In the Ishaqi raid, coalition forces captured Ahmad Abdallah Muhammed Na'is al-Utaybi, known as Hamza, a Kuwaiti-born al-Qaeda cell leader, Caldwell said.

He said the dead included Uday Faris al-Tawafi, known as Abu Ahmed, an Iraqi involved in making so-called improvised explosive devices and recruiting Iraqis to join the insurgency against US-led forces and the Baghdad government.