Anger at deadly U.S. military raid in southern Iraq

[G_j]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042600822.html


Anger at deadly U.S. military raid in southern Iraq
Reuters
Sunday, April 26, 2009; 10:08 AM

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqis protested against U.S. forces on Sunday after U.S. soldiers killed a man and a woman in an overnight raid that was condemned by the provincial governor.

The U.S. military said it targeted "special groups" fighters, or elite Shi'ite militiamen the United States says are funded and armed by Iran, in a raid on their house early Sunday in the city of Kut, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

In a statement, the military said U.S. troops had shot and killed a man suspected of being behind supplying weapons to the Shi'ite fighters. One woman was killed in the crossfire and six suspected militants were arrested, it said.

As a funeral procession made its way through Kut carrying the cloth-draped coffins of the two people killed in the raid, protesters shouted angry slogans and demanded the release of the seized men, calling Americans "criminal occupiers."


"We condemn this horrific incident. It violates the agreements between U.S. forces and the Iraqi government," said Latif al-Tarfa, governor of Wasit province. "Innocent people were killed and the city is now very tense."

U.S. First Lieutenant John Brimley said the women killed "was in the area during the engagement with a suspect, and moved into the line of fire ... A medic treated her on site, but she died of her wounds before she could be evacuated."

Another U.S. military statement said the operation had been approved by the Iraqi government.

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