Close and Deadly Contact--US Troops and Iraqi Civilians

Tweet Read whole, tragic, but hardly surprising, article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-civilians12jun12,0,4498270,full.story?coll=la-home-center

"Since mid-February, Los Angeles Times stringers across Iraq have reported at least 18 incidents in which witnesses said troops had opened fire wildly or in areas crowded with civilians, usually after being attacked. The reports indicated that at least 22 noncombatants died in the incidents. Because they are based on various witness accounts and reports from hospital and police officials, many of whom refuse to give their names, it is not possible to independently verify most reports.

"If the anecdotal evidence is an indication, such deaths often occur after troops are shaken by roadside bombs, as occurred when The Times employee's son was killed April 17.

"The shop where the teenager [A KID REFERRED TO AT BEGINNING OF ARTICLE] sought shelter is a few minutes' walk from his home in a middle-class neighborhood of split-level houses with balconies, driveways and cerise bougainvillea draping garden walls. The stroll took him down his quiet street to a commercial strip with small stores, butcher shops and cafes. Parallel to the strip is a median and then a highway, which passes beneath a concrete tangle of overpasses before heading to the airport. Blackened blotches are evidence of the frequency of attacks on troops patrolling it.

"Mohammed said the bomb went off about 1 p.m., when his shop, which is attached to his home, was closed. "I was hesitant to open the door because I was afraid that the American soldiers would shoot me dead," he said, recalling his initial thoughts after the boy began beating on his door. The shopkeeper laid the boy on the shop's concrete floor, amid racks of potato chips, candies and soap, and placed a pillow under his head as the boy used his waning energy to recite his mother's phone number. Mohammed called repeatedly, but the line was busy, and he never got through.

"In the meantime, he said, troops kept firing."They were confused and angry and suspecting anyone around," Mohammed said. "If a bird had passed by, they would have shot it."

The U.S. military said troops shot in self-defense after being targeted first by the bomb and then by gunfire, but Mohammed and other witnesses denied that anybody shot at the soldiers.

"'It's a psychological thing. When one U.S. soldier gets killed or injured, they shoot in vengeance," said Alaa Safi, who said his brother, Ahmed, was killed April 4 when U.S. troops riddled the streets of their southwestern Baghdad neighborhood with bullets after a sniper attack.

Found on Cursor.org