Nation & World News
U.S. soldier dead, 7 injured in ambush
U.S. soldiers came under
attack on Monday in Iraq
while they were escorting
15 children to school
By Jeff Wilkinson
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
FALLUJAH, Iraq — One U.S. sol
dier of the 82nd Airborne Division
was killed and seven others were in
jured Monday while escorting chil
dren to school, a spokesman for the
division said.
The dead soldier was the third
killed in action in the so-called "Sun
ni Triangle" in two days and the 104th
to die in battle since May 1, when
President Bush declared an end to
major combat operations.
Soldiers patrolling the tribal
towns west and north of Baghdad in
recent weeks have increasingly
come under attack from roadside
bombs and guerrillas armed with
automatic weapons and rocket-pro
pelled grenades.
In Fallujah on Monday, the sol
diers — members of Alpha Compa
ny, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute
Infantry Regiment — were escorting
15 children to school at about 1
p.m. when they got out of their
Humvees to check a large, trouble
prone intersection for roadside
bombs, said Staff Sgt. Rodrick
Stallings, a public affairs officer with
the 82nd Airborne.
"They got ready to remount and
there was an explosion," he said.
"We're not sure what it was."
The unit came under immediate
small-arms fire, but no other sol
diers were injured in the firefight,
Travis Heying KRT
A crane removes the remains of an American ammunition truck in Fallujah, Iraq, on Tuesday after it was hit by a roadside bomb.
Stallings said.
None of the children was hurt, he
said.
The soldiers searched three hous
es in the area and detained 13 peo
ple for questioning, Stallings said.
He had no information about the
number of Iraqis who may have
been killed or wounded.
In what may be a related incident,
at least one Iraqi was killed and anoth
er seriously wounded when U.S. sol
diers fired on a truck, Iraqi police said.
The truck driver, Merair Mo
hammed Farhan, 50, said he was driv
ing up the main Baghdad-Fallujah
highway near the Fallujah mosque
when U S. soldiers opened fire from
behind a bulldozer.
"They destroyed the truck. 1 got
shot," Farhan said from Fallujah
General Hospital, his head and chest
covered with bloody bandages. "The
soldiers pulled me out of the truck. 1
was bleeding. There was blood cov
ering me. The soldiers kept checking
me to see if I was alive.
"There was no reason to shoot me,"
he said. "This is just like Israel."
Iraqi police identified the dead
man as Nadum al Esawi. A policeman
said that several other people were in
jured and taken to another hospital.
Stallings had no information on
that incident.
(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Report examines ‘aggressive’ U.S. tactics
Human Rights Watch has
released information that
questions the circumstances
of civilian casualties in Iraq
By E.A. Torriero
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — For more than
two months, Naiel Saleem Abdul Ka
reem could not confirm whether his
sister was dead or alive, despite wit
ness accounts that she had been shot
by American soldiers in one of the
summer's most publicized killings of
Iraqi civilians.
Then in late September, U.S. au
thorities called Kareem and told him
to come to the morgue to retrieve the
bullet-riddled body of the 74-year
old woman.
"Why did I have to wait so long?" Ka
reem asked. "I think (the U.S. military)
postponed giving her to me to calm
down the situation. They don't want
people to know how they killed her."
Klemantine Saleem's death was
one of 20 cases of civilian casualties
examined in a report to be released
Tuesday by Human Rights Watch, the
most comprehensive such probe so
far compiled by a governmental or
non-governmental agency.
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The report, which examined deaths
that occurred since President Bush de
clared the end of major combat in
Iraq on May 1, charges that the U.S.
led military coalition is often reluc
tant to investigate civilian deaths, is
not careful enough to prevent them
and has failed to provide an account
ing of the casualties. The human
rights group alleges that many of the
deaths were caused by overly aggres
sive U.S. military actions.
Despite being provided a copy of
the 56-page report before publica
tion, the U.S.-led coalition said
through its military spokesman that
it has not read it and would not com
ment on its contents.
Human Rights Watch alleges that a
detailed review of the cases "reveals a
pattern by U.S. forces of over-aggres
sive tactics, indiscriminate shooting in
residential areas and a quick reliance
on lethal force."
Very few civilian deaths by U.S. fire
are investigated, Human Rights Watch
says, and no one has an accurate
count of civilian casualties. The U.S.
led coalition counters that the figures
are "unknowable."
In Baghdad alone, the report esti
mates that there have been at least 94
Iraqi deaths under "questionable legal
circumstances that merit investigation."
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I Iundreds of innocent Iraqis have been
killed at checkpoints or caught in the
crossfire in incidents outside the capi
tal, human rights advocates say.
"Just the fact that the U.S. military
doesn't track civilian deaths indicates
that they do not seem to care," said
Joe Stork, acting executive director of
the Middle East and North Africa di
vision at Human Rights Watch.
"There needs to be a process of in
quiry and a self-examination by the
U.S. military," Stork said. "That is
not happening."
As coalition forces came under in
creasing fire this summer from anti
American insurgents, the dangers for
civilians increased when soldiers went
on the defensive, the report notes.
Human Rights Watch acknowledges
that in some cases of civilian deaths,
U.S. forces faced "a real threat," but the
group said that the response was
"sometimes disproportionate."
U.S. Lt. Col. George Krivo said the
coalition welcomes outside review
and officials regret the deaths of civil
ians, but he denied the allegation that
excessive force has been used.
"We use appropriate force given the
situation on the ground at the time,
and we use that force in order to pro
tect innocent Iraqi lives and coalition
lives," said Krivo, the coalition mili
tary spokesman.
When charges are raised against
U.S. soldiers, the military looks into
them, Krivo said.
"We take investigations very seri
ously, and any time there is the possi
bility that a soldier has done some
thing inappropriate or unlawful, we
do take the proper action," he said.
The Human Rights Watch report,
however, says that as of Oct. 1 the U.S.
military has announced the completion
of only five investigations since May 1.
In four incidents, the military
found that soldiers acted "within the
rules of engagement," tire report said.
In a fifth case, a helicopter pilot and
commander face disciplinary action
after removing a banner from a
prominent Shiite building.
"Iraq is clearly a hostile environ
ment for U.S. troops," Stork said. "But
that does not absolve the military
from its legal obligations to use force
in a restrained and proportionate
manner — and only when necessary."
The report comes as human rights
lawyers and advocates are seeking
compensation for Iraqi lives lost.
(c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services. Bill Glauber and Deborah
Horan contributed to this report.
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