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Siwar
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Another Tragic Death in Iraq !!
August 14, 2003 - 01:08 AM
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Troops shoot, leaving family asking questions
August 13, 2003
The death of three children and their father at a US Army checkpoint illustrates the danger civilians face in Iraq, writes Chris Kraul in Baghdad.
The Kawaz family had just dropped off grandmother and were heading home in their small car, well in advance of the city's 11pm curfew. No one saw that US soldiers had set up a checkpoint at the intersection ahead.
As their car rolled towards the checkpoint, a hail of bullets from US soldiers ripped through their vehicle, killing Adel Kawaz, 44, and three of his children, aged 18, 16 and 8. His wife Anwaar, screaming in vain for the soldiers to stop shooting, survived, as did the couple's 13-year-old daughter.
Although major combat operations may be over in Iraq, the Kawaz family's experience again illustrates the danger civilians face under the US-led military occupation. With resistance forces launching grenade, landmine and car bomb attacks on troops daily - another US soldier died on Sunday in a blast in Baqubah - soldiers are on high alert. In this tense and boiling-hot capital patrolled by 36,000 US troops, trigger fingers are at the ready.
The shooting of the Kawaz family happened at about 9.15pm on Friday. The army has not released details, but a military spokesman said on Monday that the incident was under investigation.
US officials also said they were looking into the apparent shooting of two Iraqi policemen by US soldiers on Saturday. The plain-clothes officers were in a car pursuing crime suspects when they were shot.
On Monday the surviving Kawaz daughter, Hadeel, said the soldiers who fired on her family car gave no warning. There had been an explosion in the neighbourhood that night, possibly from a faulty electricity transformer or generator. The family, concerned that the blast would attract US soldiers, decided to return home early. But unknown to them, soldiers had set up a checkpoint about 800 metres from the grandmother's house.
After the firing on their car stopped, Hadeel said, her father and eight-year-old sister Marvet lay in the car for an hour without receiving medical attention. Soldiers eventually removed them from the vehicle and they died at a hospital. Her brother Haider, 18, and older sister, Oulah, 16, died at the scene.
Hadeel explained how before the tragedy, she had taken a liking to the Americans. She and her siblings would interrupt their video games to give the soldiers water when they patrolled in the heat near their house.
"And now this happens to us," said Hadeel, who escaped with scalp and arm wounds from flying glass.
After the firing began, Hadeel's mother, eight months pregnant, screamed for the soldiers to stop, apparently to no avail.
Hadeel's uncle, Jamal Khathem, said the killings were God's will and that his sister-in-law had no intention of seeking restitution from the Americans. Still, it has surprised him that no one from the US Government had come to their house to investigate the shooting, check on Hadeel's condition or apologise.
A coalition spokesman said it was up to victims to apply for restitution after allegedly wrongful-death incidents, as well as to provide proof, including photos of the scene and victims. But Khathem said nothing could make up for what occurred.
"What has happened, happened. What could they offer us that would bring our family back to life?" he asked. "All soldiers care about is fighting and defending themselves, not about the problems of people like us."
- Los Angeles Times
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Joined: Apr 4, 2003
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Country: Israel
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US soldiers shoot into Iraqi crowd
August 14, 2003 - 01:28 AM
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US soldiers shot into a crowd of thousands of demonstrators in a Shia district of Baghdad yesterday, killing a civilian and wounding four others after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at them, the US military said.
About 3,000 demonstrators gathered around a telecommunications tower in Sadr City where they said American forces in a helicopter had tried to tear down an Islamic banner. A US military spokesman said it appeared to have been blown down by rotor wash from a helicopter.
Amateur video footage obtained by Associated Press Television News showed a Black Hawk helicopter hovering a few feet from the top of the tower and apparently trying to tear down the banner.
US forces opened fire after stones, gunfire and one rocket-propelled grenade were directed at soldiers driving by the area. No soldiers were hit in the incident, a US military spokesman said.
Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, is a Shia stronghold in the otherwise Sunni-dominated capital.
Meanwhile in the Baquba region, 45 miles north-east of Baghdad, two Iraqis were killed in separate incidents after firing on US troops, a military spokeswoman said.
In another clash yesterday, a four-vehicle coalition convoy hit a roadside bomb 15 miles south of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, leaving one US soldier dead and another wounded.
Another soldier was reported killed and two wounded in a bomb attack on Tuesday near Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad. The attack was in the same region where an oil pipeline was set on fire on Tuesday.
AP, Baghdad
Thursday August 14, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1018436,00.html
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