US Troops Kill Six Iraqis near Kirkuk; FBI Invited to Investigate Najaf Bombing

01/09/2003| IslamWeb

American occupation troops killed six Iraqis, who, according to a U.S. military spokesman, ambushed the US convoy and used rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. Two American occupation troops were injured in this incident on Saturday afternoon close to the northern city of Kirkuk, Reuters quoted Lieutenant Colonel William MacDonald, spokesman for the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division, as saying Sunday. According to him, all in all, eight men participated in the attack against the convoy, and the US forces returned fire, shooting to death six Iraqis and wounding two. Meanwhile, Najaf leaders asked the FBI for help investigating Friday's blast, which killed 125 people. Iraqi police said the bomb that exploded at the Imam Ali mosque contained the equivalent of 1,650 pounds of TNT. The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority said Najaf Governor Haider Mehadi asked the FBI to join Iraqi police in the investigation, and that the American investigators would be traveling to Najaf shortly, the AP reported. FBI agents are leading the investigations into both the Aug. 7 bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and attack on the U.N. headquarters 12 days later. **PHOTO CAPTION*** U.S. Army soldiers from the 4th Battalion 42 Field Artillery unload blindfolded Iraqi detainees from a military truck during a pre-dawn raid in the village of Hamreen, northeastern Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2003. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)