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Iraqi soldiers, police kill each other by mistake

By wire services
Published March 25, 2005

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi army patrol mistook a group of police officers for insurgents in northern Iraq on Thursday, and in the ensuing gunbattle, three soldiers and two police officers were killed, officials said.

The battle, which wounded eight men, broke out as an army patrol sped toward a police checkpoint in Rabia, about 90 miles west of Mosul near the Syrian border, police officials said. It was not clear whether the police or army officers were in civilian clothing.

Friendly-fire incidents among Iraqi security officials have been rare. Insurgents have often mounted ambushes dressed in army and police uniforms, putting the officers on edge. The attacks have been especially common around Mosul, where insurgents overran and ransacked most of the city's police stations in November.

The gunbattle came on an unusually quiet day in Iraq, with no reports of insurgent attacks.

Hundreds of power workers shouting "No, no, to terror!" marched through Baghdad to protest attacks that have killed dozens of their colleagues, while demonstrators in the south demanded that the new petroleum minister be from their oil-rich region.

The demonstrations came as negotiators for the two biggest factions in the new National Assembly worked out details of an Iraqi government that U.S. officials hope will pave the way for the eventual withdrawal of coalition forces.

Jawad al-Maliki, a negotiator from the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, said talks had progressed enough for Shiite Arab and ethnic Kurd officials to agree to hold Parliament's second session early next week, although no date had been set. The 275-seat National Assembly met March 16 to swear in its members.

Lined up behind a black banner with the names of slain power workers, protesters demanded an end to attacks on electricity stations and oil pipelines - targets in an insurgent effort to weaken the economy and undermine the interim government.

In the southern city of Basra, more than 200 workers gathered outside a local government building to insist that the new government's oil and transportation ministers be from that region.

Some oil workers threatened to disrupt production in the south.

The insurgency's persistent violence, and the threat of disruptions to Iraq's oil exports, have contributed to rising world crude prices over the past year.

Kurdish and Shiite negotiators debated Cabinet posts Thursday, and Abdul-Karim al-Anzi, a Shiite official, said lawmakers should be able to elect the president, two vice presidents and Parliament's speaker in their session next week.

The prime minister is expected to be Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a politician from Iraq's Shiite Arab majority. Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is likely to be named president.

One of the vice presidents will likely be a Sunni Arab, Maliki and Anzi said. The move is an effort to reach out to the Sunni community, which is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency. Dominant under former dictator Saddam Hussein, Sunni Arabs mostly stayed away from Iraq's Jan. 30 election, some in a boycott of the vote and others in fear of attacks.

Shiite Arabs are estimated to make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26-million people, while Kurds and Sunni Arabs are each thought to be 15 percent to 20 percent.

Also Thursday, the U.S. military said a prisoner died the previous day at the Camp Charlie internment facility. The man, in his early 30s, was found lying in his cell and attempts to revive him failed, the statement said. It said the cause of death was under investigation.

Information from the New York Times and Associated Press was used in this report.

[Last modified March 25, 2005, 01:25:13]