US Troops Kill Iraqi Civilians in Baghdad
13/08/2005| IslamWeb
An attack on a US military patrol followed by heavy US gunfire left 15 Iraqis dead and 17 wounded in a town west of Baghdad, residents have said.
Residents of Nasaf, a town just outside Ramadi, west of Baghdad, said a roadside bomb exploded next to a US armoured patrol as it passed near the Ibn al-Jawzi mosque shortly after prayers on Friday.
Following the explosion, US troops opened fire, the residents said, shooting towards those emerging from the mosque.
Munem Aftan, the director of Ramadi General Hospital, said 15 people were killed, including eight children, and 17 wounded.
The US military denied troops had opened fire indiscriminately.
"Indiscriminate US fire on civilians? No, nothing even resembling this occurred," Captain Jeffrey Pool, a Marines spokesman in Ramadi, said in an e-mailed reply to questions.
He did not say whether an attack on a US patrol had occurred or whether any US troops were wounded.
Rights groups' concerns
The death toll was initially reported as two dead, but doctors said it had risen sharply overnight, with several of the severely wounded succumbing to their injuries.
Iraqi civilians frequently complain that US troops open fire indiscriminately after they are attacked.
The US military says it does everything possible to avoid civilian casualties and is careful to respond to attacks in a measured fashion.
Human rights groups have documented scores of cases in which civilians have been shot and killed after approaching US military roadblocks too quickly, or not following instructions to keep away from US military convoys as they pass.
Roadside bombs - large or small amounts of explosives buried in the side of the road and detonated as US vehicles pass - are the biggest killer of US troops in Iraq.
A US general said on Friday that roadside bomb attacks on US supply convoys in Iraq had doubled in the past year, although the number of casualties had declined because of increased use of armoured vehicles.
Car bomber
A car bomber has blown himself up in front of a US military vehicle in south Baghdad on Saturday killing one civilian, an interior ministry official said.
"The attack occurred when the US military vehicle was tracing an IED (improvised explosive device) in the al-Dura neighbourhood," the official said.
"A bomber drove a car and blew it in front of the US vehicle. We do not know if there were any US casualties, but one civilian was killed and one wounded."
There was no immediate confirmation of the incident by the US military.
Attacks against US forces have surged recently with about 50 soldiers killed in the past three weeks.
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