Sudden U.S. Gunfire Claims Child, Her Grandfather and a Neighbor, Residents Say

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Found on Angry Arab Newservice

Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/31/AR2008033102790_pf.html

BAGHDAD, March 31 -- Abdul Qader, his chest and leg wrapped in white bandages, began to cry -- not out of pain, but loss. He remembered seeing the American Humvees, then a hail of bullets. He remembered seeing his close friend and neighbor, Abbas Ramadan, shot as he clutched his 2-year-old granddaughter, blood oozing from her head. Abdul Qader ran and ran until he collapsed from the bullets that pierced his own body.

"He's gone. He was so kind," said Abdul Qader, crumbling. "I am not crying because of my wounds. I am crying because of my friend. He was like a brother."

Abdul Qader's suffering is part of the human toll of the worst violence in months in Iraq. At least 400 people, from the southern city of Basra to the capital, Baghdad, were killed over six days, including many civilians, according to Iraqi police and other officials. Countless more were injured, joining thousands of Iraqis whose lives have been shattered by five years of conflict.

On Saturday evening, Ramadan and his granddaughter Tabarik were mortally wounded as they sat outside their front door in Baghdad's Zafraniya neighborhood. Witnesses said U.S. troops fired in their direction toward a group of young men who the soldiers may have thought were militiamen. Abbas Fadhil, 25, a neighbor, was also killed as he bought a pack of cigarettes.

A U.S. military spokesman said there were no reports of accidental deaths of civilians at that time, or of U.S. troops engaging hostile forces in the area.

"I'm not saying it didn't happen. If it did happen, we would want them to come forward and let us know," Lt. Col. Steve Stover said. "We don't like making mistakes. We do own up to our mistakes."