Iraqi farmers gunned down

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

TOWNSPEOPLE MISTAKEN FOR MILITANTS

June 13 ? Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. ground forces in 
Iraq, says U.S. soldiers in Balad ?took their toll? on their attackers. 
NBC?s Dawna Friesen reports from Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Jaafar Obeid, a farmer, told The Associated Press that five male 
relatives ? including a 70-year-old man and three of his sons, ? were shot 
by American troops who apparently mistook them for militants fleeing after 
attacking a U.S. tank patrol.

Lt. Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, declined to comment on 
reports of civilian casualties in the incident, which started late Thursday 
on the outskirts of Balad, a rural area 30 miles north of Baghdad.

?If they?re wearing civilian clothing and shooting weapons at you, they are 
not classified as civilians,? Julian said Saturday.

But townspeople said the five men were trying to douse fires in their wheat 
fields set by U.S. flares when soldiers shot them. Mourners set up three 
tents for funeral services in Elheed, the village near Balad where people 
said the men were killed.

Obeid said an American officer came and apologized to the family Friday 
morning for the deaths, which he said have devastated the village.

?This action will bring harm to them (the Americans),? the farmer said. 
?They should have checked before opening fire. They have eliminated a whole 
family.?

The ambush near Balad started just before midnight Thursday, when a large 
force of insurgents detonated a land mine and fired rockets on a two-tank 
patrol of the 4th Infantry Division, said Lt. Col. Andy Fowler, a senior 
officer.

The tanks returned fire, killing four assailants, before calling in 
reinforcements including Apache helicopters and Bradley armored vehicles 
and chasing the fleeing attackers, U.S. Central Command said.

There were no American casualties but conflicting reports of Iraqi deaths. 
U.S. Central Command said American forces killed 27 Iraqi insurgents but 
officers at the scene put the number much lower, at five or seven.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA01


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