US 'saddened' by deadly Iraq raid

The US military is "deeply saddened" by the outcome of its raid in southern Iraq in which two people were killed, a senior US officer has said.

Colonel Richard Francey, expressed his condolences for "a terrible tragedy" that took place in Kut on Sunday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki denounced the operation as a crime and a violation of the security pact governing the US presence in Iraq.

The US says the raid was approved by Iraqi officials, as the pact requires.

Iraq has detained two of its army commanders who allegedly authorised the operation without the knowledge of officials.

A policeman and a woman were shot dead and six people detained.

On Monday the Americans freed their detainees.

Among them was Muamar Ahmed Abdul-Munim who said his wife and his brother had been killed. "We want to prosecute the soldiers who killed our loved ones," he said.

Mr Abdul-Munin says that he and the other detainees were hooded and taken by helicopter to an unknown destination.

A female US officer then questioned them over their alleged links to Iran and Iranian-backed militia.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says it is the most serious dispute between the US and Iraq since the agreement came into force at the start of the year.

US forces stormed buildings in Wasit province early on Sunday morning.

The US military had said the raid, against a weapons smuggler and "network financier", had been "fully coordinated and approved by the Iraqi government".

They said soldiers had shot and killed "an individual with a weapon" outside the house and that the woman who died had "moved into the line of fire".

In a statement read on state TV, Mr Maliki had called on the US to "release the detainees and hand over those responsible for this crime to the courts".

The incident caused uproar in Wasit, where provincial governor Latif Hamad al-Turfah echoed Mr Maliki's condemnation.

He said local government and officials had been "surprised that these forces carried out the raid in breach of the agreement signed between the Iraqi and US governments".

The chairman of the provincial council, Mahmud Abd al-Rida, said the raid had embodied the "meaning of the occupation".

"Their claim of friendship and early withdrawal from our dear land, according to the security agreement signed by the two Iraqi and US parties, is meaningless," he said.

The complicated Status of Forces Agreement was signed in November last year and came into force in early 2009.

It requires all military operations in Iraq to have the government's approval and allows for US soldiers to face trial if they commit crimes off base.

The US currently has more than 140,000 troops in Iraq, and combat troops are due to pull out of Iraq's cities by the end of June.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8022156.stm

US soldier jailed on Iraq murders

A US soldier has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering four Iraqi detainees in 2007.

Sgt Joseph Mayo, 27, was earlier convicted by a court martial of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.

The detainees were shot and dumped in a Baghdad canal in retribution for an attack on an US patrol in the Iraqi capital in which two soldiers died.

Mayo will be eligible for parole in 10 years, the court ruled.

He had pleaded guilty to the charges during the hearing at the US Army's Rose Barracks in southern Germany.

He told the military court that the four detainees were shot in the back of the head with 9mm pistols and their bodies thrown into a canal in Baghdad.

"I thought it was in the best interests of my soldiers," Mayo told the court.

He said the men had been arrested after his unit had been attacked a number of times and that a number of weapons and ammunition were found in the building where the men were arrested.

A witness in the trial has been quoted as saying that there was an atmosphere of "frustration and fear" among the soldiers over the increasing frequency of attacks on their unit.

The judge overseeing the proceedings, Col Jeffrey Nance, said Sgt Mayo had "entered into an agreement to commit premeditated murder", which resulted in the four bound and blindfolded men being shot in the head.

Mayo is one of seven soldiers allegedly involved in the case and the second to be convicted for murder.

In February 2009, Sgt Joseph Leahy, 28, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the case. He told the court that he had made a bad mistake.

Two other soldiers have admitted to lesser charges.

The most senior soldier allegedly present at the killings, Master Sgt John E Hatley, is scheduled to stand trial for murder on 13 April.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7972103.stm

US 'lie detector' marine on trial

A US marine has gone on trial accused of killing an unarmed captive in Iraq, in a case sparked by his own alleged confession during a lie-detector test.

The court-martial in California heard that when Sgt Ryan Weemer applied for a Secret Service job, he said he had killed someone in Iraq in 2004.

That led to a criminal investigation and he was recalled to active duty to face military prosecution.

He denies the charge and his defence argues the case cannot be proved.

At the court-martial, being held at Camp Pendleton marine base near San Diego, his lawyer told the jury there was no evidence a crime had ever been committed.

He said prosecutors could not prove their case because they had no body, no forensic evidence and no relatives complaining of a lost loved one.

But prosecutors have at least one recording of Sgt Weemer saying he shot a man.

He is charged with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty stemming from a fierce fire-fight in Falluja in 2004.

Sgt Weemer left the Marine Corps two years later and applied for a job in the Secret Service.

During a polygraph test as part of the application, he was asked about the most serious crime he had ever committed.

"We went into this house, there happened to be four or five guys in the house," he said on the recording, which was played at the trial.

"We ended up shooting them, we had to."

The US military had ordered all civilians out of Falluja ahead of an assault - Operation Phantom Fury - aimed at recapturing the city from insurgents.

Sgt Weemer said in the interview that the unarmed Iraqis were killed because the marines did not have time to take the men to jail.

His squadron leader, Jose Nazario, has already been tried and was found not guilty.

A third marine, who is also charged with murder, faces trial in a few weeks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7975736.stm

A Soldier’s Soul Screams ‘Get Out’

Last week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus held its second of six scheduled forums on Afghanistan. It was the first non-classified public forum on Capitol Hill to address the Obama Administration's newly released Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.) -- a Vietnam Veteran and former chief of staff for Secretary Colin Powell -- offered some powerful words of caution.

"My soldier's soul screams at me to get out," Wilkerson said. "Part of that is some 38,000 names on a Wall that I do not fail to visit twice a year every year for the last 25 years....Counterinsurgency is not a very optimal experience. It rarely is won, it rarely results in what we might call a viable civility, prosperity and dignity. Look at Iraq right now... We never solved the problems in the Gulf."

He spoke out against the use of bombs and predator drone strikes. He said that killing "a few" Al Qaeda or Taliban targets "coupled with 20 to 25 civilian deaths" was only helping the enemy's recruiting efforts.

"Research is now showing that the leaders that they replace them with are more radical than the leaders we hit," he said.

Although Wilkerson doesn't argue for withdrawal -- he said we need "to get this better" -- he nevertheless makes a pretty powerful case against escalation. "One thing I would not do is over-militarize our foreign policy," he said. "... We need to demilitarize as much as possible... Keep our sword sheathed, and only pull it out when it's absolutely necessary."

The next day a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee held a hearing on "Achieving Peace and Stability in the Graveyard of Empires".

Dr. Seth Jones, a political scientist with the RAND Corporation, also pointed to the seemingly impossible task of General Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy. He said the ratio requirement "needed to win a counterinsurgency is 20 security forces per 1000 inhabitants... [Given] the population estimates in provinces where most of the insurgency is taking place, [this] translates into a force requirement of approximately 271,652 forces." (Other estimates are as high as 400,000 troops needed to execute the Petraeus Playbook.) So it really comes as no surprise that Petraeus already signaled he will ask for another 10,000 troops even before the dust had settled on Obama's announcement of an additional 21,000 troops.

Jones also warned that escalation by the US "may be interpreted by the population as an occupation, eliciting nationalist reactions...."

The soldier's soul had it right. This strategy won't work. We need to Get Out

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/424616?rel=hp_picks

Anger after Afghan family killed in US raid

ALI DAYA, Afghanistan (AFP) – An Afghan army colonel whose wife and children died in a US-led raid demanded action against the troops responsible Friday as President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings.

The operation in the eastern province of Khost around midnight Wednesday killed the wife of Afghan National Army artillery commander Awal Khan, two of his children and a brother.

The troops, who had been hunting a militant linked to radical Islamist groups, also shot a pregnant woman and killed her unborn baby, which had almost come to term, Khan and a provincial health official said. The woman survived the shooting.

The mounting civilian death toll from military operations is one of the main sources of tension between Afghan authorities and the US and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

"The (international) coalition has to stop this cruelty and brutal action," a grieving Khan told AFP in the village of Ali Daya a few kilometres (miles) south of Khost.

Khan said he was flown home from his base in the eastern province of Ghazni in a military helicopter Thursday after being told of the deaths.

"I want the coalition leaders to expose those behind this and punish them," Khan said, adding that the Afghan government should resign if it could not protect its people.

Khan lost his schoolteacher wife, a 17-year-old daughter named Nadia, a 15-year-old son, Aimal, and his brother, who worked for a government department. Another daughter was wounded.

After the shooting, the pregnant wife of Khan's cousin, who lived next door, went outside her home and was shot five times in the abdomen, the army officer said.

She was taken to Khost provincial hospital, where the nine-month-old foetus was removed, he said.

"She survived but her child died. The child was hit by bullets," said Khost province health director Abdul Majeed.

Police said troops stood on the roofs of houses surrounding that of a militant suspect, and appeared to be intruders to neighbouring residents, who came out with weapons and opened fire.

The US-led military initially said four people killed by troops were "armed militants."

But a statement Thursday said investigations "suggest that the people killed and wounded were not enemy combatants as previously reported."

US military spokesman Colonel Greg Julian told AFP Friday it had become clear that the four were not associated with the targeted militant, who was arrested.

"It was an unfortunate set of circumstances where they may have thought they were being robbed or attacked and came out, and the forces may have thought they were associated with the targeted individual," he said.

"There will undoubtedly be some financial assistance and other types of assistance," he added.

In a statement expressing sadness about the incident, Karzai said he had ordered his interior and defence ministries, the intelligence service and local government to investigate and present their findings to him Saturday.

Karzai had "for several years repeatedly asked the international military forces (to) carry out their counter-terrorism operations in ways that do not cause civilian casualties," it said.

The Khost provincial council, meanwhile, stopped work to protest against the military action.

International humanitarian organisation CARE said in a statement that the slain schoolteacher had been working at a school that it supports.

"CARE strongly condemns the action and demands that international military forces operating in Afghanistan are held accountable for their actions and avoid all attacks on innocent civilians in the country," it said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090410/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrestcivilianlead

US apologises over Afghan deaths

The US military has admitted that its troops killed four civilians in Afghanistan, including a child, not fighters as was earlier reported.

The US has also offered an apology for the deaths on Wednesday night and indicated that the family will receive support.

Brigadier-General Michael Ryan said in a statement late on Thursday: "We deeply regret the tragic loss of life in this precious family."

A 13-year-old boy who survived the night-time raid on his home told Al Jazeera that his mother, brother, uncle and another female family member were killed.

A woman who was nine months' pregnant was wounded and lost her baby.

"Words alone cannot begin to express our regret and sympathy and we will ensure the surviving family members are properly cared for," Ryan said.

Al Jazeera's Todd Baer, reporting from Kabul, said that while the US operation was going on, the family thought that somebody had entered their home unlawfully to steal.

"They began shooting at soldiers. So the soldiers returned fire," he said.

"There has been enormous pressure from citizens on the Afghan government to end these kinds of civilian casualties, end these kind of raids on houses."

Colonel Graig Julian, a US officer, told Al Jazeera: "When it appears that we have accidentally killed innocent civilians, we are very sorry about that. That is not why we came here. We came here to provide security for the Afghan citizens."

Violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest level since the US-led invasion to overthrow the Taliban government in 2001, despite a growing number of foreign troops.
In the latest clashes, Afghan and US-led multinational forces said they killed 27 fighters in two separate battles in the southern provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan on Friday.

A spokesman for Helmand's governor said the toll could be higher, with up to 36 people killed and 18 others wounded in one battle.

In a second incident in Helmand, six police officers were killed and seven wounded by suspected Taliban fighters in Nava district.

Barack Obama, the US president, wants to increase troop numbers further and is seeking the support of Nato countries, also stationed in Afghanistan, for a "surge" strategy similar to that operated in Iraq.

However, forces opposed to the US-backed Afghan government have been able to take the conflict from their strongholds in the south and east to the outskirts of the capital, Kabul.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in operations by Afghan and foreign forces, an issue that has angered residents and increased pressure on Hamid Karzai, the country's president.

The casualties have also been a major source of friction between the Afghan government and the West.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/04/200941065238517438.html

60 drone hits kill 14 al-Qaeda men, 687 civilians

LAHORE: Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides perishing 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent.

Figures compiled by the Pakistani authorities show that a total of 701 people, including 14 al-Qaeda leaders, have been killed since January 2006 in 60 American predator attacks targeting the tribal areas of Pakistan. Two strikes carried out in 2006 had killed 98 civilians while three

attacks conducted in 2007 had slain 66 Pakistanis, yet none of the wanted al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders could be hit by the Americans right on target. However, of the 50 drone attacks carried out between January 29, 2008 and April 8, 2009, 10 hit their targets and killed 14 wanted al-Qaeda operatives. Most of these attacks were carried out on the basis of intelligence believed to have been provided by the Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen who had been spying for the US-led allied forces stationed in Afghanistan.

The remaining 50 drone attacks went wrong due to faulty intelligence information, killing hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children. The number of the Pakistani civilians killed in those 50 attacks stood at 537, in which 385 people lost their lives in 2008 and 152 people were slain in the first 99 days of 2009 (between January 1 and April 8).

Of the 50 drone attacks, targeting the Pakistani tribal areas since January 2008, 36 were carried out in 2008 and 14 were conducted in the first 99 days of 2009. Of the 14 attacks targeting Pakistan in 2009, three were carried out in January, killing 30 people, two in February killing 55 people, five in March killing 36 people and four were conducted in the first nine days of April, killing 31 people.

Of the 14 strikes carried out in the first 99 days of April 2009, only one proved successful, killing two most wanted senior al-Qaeda leaders - Osama al Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan. Both had lost their lives in a New Year’s Day drone strike carried out in the South Waziristan region on January 1, 2009.

Kini was believed to be the chief operational commander of al-Qaeda in Pakistan and had replaced Abu Faraj Al Libi after his arrest from Bannu in 2004. Both men were behind the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dares Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed 224 civilians and wounded more than 5,000 others.

There were 36 recorded cross-border US predator strikes inside Pakistan during 2008, of which 29 took place after August 31, 2008, killing 385 people. However, only nine of the 36 strikes hit their actual targets, killing 12 wanted al-Qaeda leaders. The first successful predator strike had killed Abu Laith al Libi, a senior military commander of al-Qaeda who was targeted in North Waziristan on January 29, 2008. The second successful attack in Bajaur had killed Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al-Qaeda’s external operations chief, on March 14, 2008. The third attack in South Waziristan on July 28, 2008, had killed Abu Khabab al Masri, al-Qaeda’s weapons of mass destruction chief. The fourth successful attack in South Waziristan on August 13, 2008, had killed al-Qaeda leader Abdur Rehman.

The fifth predator strike carried out in North Waziristan near Miranshah on Sept 8, 2008 had killed three al-Qaeda leaders, Abu Haris, Abu Hamza, and Zain Ul Abu Qasim. The sixth successful predator hit in the South Waziristan region on October 2008 had killed Khalid Habib, a key leader of al-Qaeda’s paramilitary Shadow Army.

The seventh such attack conducted in North Waziristan on October 31, 2008 had killed Abu Jihad al Masri, a top leader of the Egyptian Islamic group. The eighth successful predator strike had killed al-Qaeda leader Abdullah Azzam al Saudi in east of North Waziristan on November 19, 2008.

The ninth and the last successful drone attack of 2008, carried out in the Ali Khel region just outside Miramshah in North Waziristan on November 22, 2008, had killed al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubair al Masri and his Pakistani fugitive accomplice Rashid Rauf.

According to the figures compiled by the Pakistani authorities, a total of 537 people have been killed in 50 incidents of cross-border US predator strikes since January 1, 2008 to April 8, 2009, averaging 34 killings per month and 11 killings per attack. The average per month killings in predator strikes during 12 months of 2008 stood at 32 while the average per attack killings in the 36 drone strikes for the same year stood at 11.

Similarly, 152 people have been killed in 14 incidents of cross-border predator attacks in the tribal areas in the first 99 days of 2009, averaging 38 killings per month and 11 killings per attack.

Since September 3, 2008, it appears that the Americans have upped their attacks in Pakistani tribal areas in a bid to disrupt the al-Qaeda and the Taliban network, which they allege is being used to launch cross border ambushes against the Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The American forces stationed in Afghanistan carried out nine aerial strikes between September 3 and September 25, 2008, killing 57 people and injuring 38 others. The attacks were launched on September 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 15, 17, 22 and September 27. However, the September 3, 2008 American action was unique in the sense that two CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters landed in the village of Zawlolai in the South Waziristan Agency with ground troops from the US Special Operation Forces, fired at three houses and killed 17, including five women and four sleeping children.

Besides the two helicopters carrying the US Special Forces Commandos, two jet fighters and two gun-ship helicopters provided the air cover for the half-an-hour American operation, more than a kilometre inside the Pakistani border.

The last predator strike on [April 8, 2009] was carried out hardly a few hours after the Pakistani authorities had rejected an American proposal for joint operations in the tribal areas against terrorism and militancy, as differences of opinion between the two countries over various aspects of the war on terror came out into the open for the first time.

The proposal came from two top US visiting officials, presidential envoy for the South Asia Richard Holbrooke and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. However, the Pakistani military and political leadership reportedly rejected the proposal and adopted a tough posture against a barrage of increasing US predator strikes and criticism emanating from Washington, targeting the Pakistan Army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and creating doubts about their sincerity in the war on terror and the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=21440

US soldier goes on trial accused of raping Iraqi girl

Steven Green, 22, who was discharged for a "personality disorder" before the slaying was discovered, faces the death penalty in the civil trial being held in Kentucky. He is the first former army soldier to be charged as a civilian under a law that allows prosecution for alleged crimes committed overseas.

Three other soldiers were given life sentences in the March 2006 atrocity which was allegedly devised over whiskey and a game of cards at a traffic check point in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad. A fourth soldier who acted as a lookout was sentenced to 27 months in jail.

The allegations came to light a few months later when stress counsellors talked to the squad after an incident in which two soldiers were abducted at a checkpoint and later brutally murdered.

Green told his friends he "wanted to go to a house and kill some Iraqis," Specialist James Barker said at a court martial.

The soldiers changed into black outfits and masks so they would look like insurgents and headed for the house of a 14-year-old girl they had noticed walking through the village.

Sergeant Paul Cortez testified that he raped Abeer Kassem Hamza al-Janabi while Barker pinned the sobbing girl to the floor.

The men switched positions and then heard about four or five shots from a bedroom where Green had taken the girl's father, mother and six-year-old sister, Cortez said.

Green shot the girl when he was finished raping her and the soldiers set the home on fire by tossing a lighter onto a Kerosine-soaked blanket covering her naked body, the other soldiers said. They then went back to their checkpoint about 200 meters away and grilled chicken wings.

Green faces 17 criminal counts – including rape, murder and obstruction of justice – in civilian court because he was discharged from the army before the allegations came to light.

Opening statements are scheduled for April 27.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/5116745/US-soldier-goes-on-trial-accused-of-raping-Iraqi-girl.html

US military admits killing mother, children

KABUL (AFP) - The US military in Afghanistan admitted Thursday that four people its troops killed in a raid were not "combatants", after Afghans said they included a mother and her children, with a baby dying afterwards.

Afghan officials and witnesses earlier accused the forces of killing civilians in an overnight raid in the eastern province of Khost that the US military initially said killed "four combatants".

"Further inquiries into the coalition and ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) operation in Khost earlier today suggest that the people killed and wounded were not enemy combatants as previously reported," the military said.

"Coalition forces are working closely with local Afghan officials and family members to express condolences and provide assistance in the aftermath of this tragic event," it said, adding that an investigation was continuing.

It is the latest in a series of incidents in which civilians have been killed or wounded by international forces, who are in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The Khost police chief in charge of counter-terrorism, who is named only Ghazuddin, told AFP that the soldiers had gone to a village outside of Khost city in search of a militant.

They climbed on the roofs of other houses to surround the targeted building, he told AFP.

The occupants of one of the homes, which belonged to a colonel in the Afghan National Army who was serving elsewhere, suspected they were thieves, came out with guns and opened fire, Ghazuddin said.

"The Americans shot them thinking they are insurgents," he said.

The colonel's wife and daughter, son and brother were killed, he said.

Two women and a baby boy were also wounded. "The coalition took the women and little boy to hospital for treatment. Later the boy died," Ghazuddin said.

He was unable to say what injuries killed the baby, whom he said was nine months old.

However, the baby's uncle, Janat Gul, said the child was seven days old.

The dead woman was a school teacher, the Afghan education ministry said in a statement. It added that the girl who died was in the fourth grade at school, which would make her about 10 years old, and the boy was in the ninth grade, making him around 15.

The US military gave a similar version of events.

"Coalition and Afghan forces do not believe that this family was involved with militant activities and that they were defending their home against an unknown threat," its statement said.

The force said earlier that the raid targeted a militant linked to the radical Haqqani network and the Islamic Jihad Union, both associated with Al-Qaeda.

Three suspected militants were arrested at the compound that was initially targeted, it said. They included the targeted militant, the force told locals.

Civilian casualties caused by international forces in Afghanistan have sparked frequent anger and resentment, leading President Hamid Karzai to accuse them of not taking enough care.

Karzai has told the international forces to work in close consultation with the Afghan authorities to avoid harming civilians.

The United Nations said in February that a record 2,118 civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict in 2008, with nearly 40 percent of the deaths caused by pro-government forces, including US-led and NATO troops.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090409/world/afghanistan_unrest_civilian