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Dispute erupts over deadly raid in Iraq

A family says it was wrongly targeted. The U.S. says it was dealing with suspected terrorists.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 28, 2006

BAGHDAD - American troops killed eight people - four of them women - after taking heavy fire during a raid Wednesday on a suspected terrorist's house in Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.

But relatives of the dead disputed the U.S. account, saying their family wasn't associated with terrorists.

"This is an ugly criminal act by the U.S. soldiers against Iraqi citizens," Manal Jassim, the killed homeowner's daughter, told Associated Press Television News.

Iraq's major Sunni clerical organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, condemned the raid as a "terrorist massacre."

The U.S. command said in a statement that American soldiers came under fire when approaching the home of a suspect linked to the leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.

U.S. troops killed two terrorist suspects, then called in airstrikes "due to the heavy volume of enemy fire from the target building," the military said. After the attack, they found the bodies of two more terror suspects and four women in the building.

Three people were wounded, including two suspected terrorists who were detained, the military said.

The troops also found weapons and a global positioning system, the military said.

A family member said all eight people killed were relatives and disputed that they had any links to a terrorist group. "The Americans killed my relatives who had no guilt or relation with any group," Saleh Ali said.

"They were innocent people," Manal Jassim said. "We were sleeping when they entered our house at dawn. I found my father, mother, aunt and sister-in-law laying dead. We were an 11-member family. Eight were killed."

U.S. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said the U.S. patrol warned people to leave the building peacefully but gunfire was the only response.

"It's extremely unfortunate whenever there's a loss of life. And nobody's quite sure what the connection was to all those people that were firing their weapons from that home. But it's unfortunate that anybody ever has to die," he said.

[Last modified September 28, 2006, 00:26:55]