US killing of eight Iraqi police fuels anger in troubled town
Rory McCarthy in Falluja
Saturday September 13, 2003
The Guardian
The US military reignited tension in one of Iraq's most troubled towns yesterday when its troops mistakenly shot dead eight policemen who were chasing a car full of suspected bandits.
American military officials were at a loss last night to explain why their soldiers opened fire with heavy machines guns on the officers, who were in two
clearly marked Iraqi police cars in the town of Falluja.
As well as the eight who died, four other policemen were injured.
Their patrol cars had their sirens on and their warning lights flashing as they chased the suspects through the centre of town early yesterday. As the vehicles passed in front of a US military base American tanks opened fire without warning.
The suspect car, a dark BMW believed to be carrying several gunmen, disappeared untouched by the shooting.
Police officers described how they pleaded with the soldiers to stop firing as their colleagues died around them.
A Jordanian security guard on duty at a Jordanian-funded hospital opposite the US base was also killed. Four other guards outside the hospital were injured and the buildings were seriously damaged by heavy American shelling.
In a separate incident in another troubled Sunni town near Falluja, two US troops were killed and seven others were injured during a raid in Ramadi. The US authorities refused to elaborate on the operation. Many in Falluja are already fiercely critical of the US military occupation, in part because they represent the small Sunni community that prospered under Saddam Hussein and has now lost its influence.
Even those who welcomed the fall of the Iraqi dictator lost any sympathy for the US troops after they opened fire on a crowd of unarmed protesters in Falluja in May, killing 18 people and leaving at least 70 injured.
At Falluja's main hospital yesterday Abdul Kader Jasim, 30, stood at the bedside of one of his wounded colleagues as he described how the two cars were attacked. The men were part of a uniformed Iraqi protection force working alongside the police with the knowledge and support of the US military.
Mr Jasim, a non-commissioned police officer, was driving the first of the two police patrol cars, a blue and white saloon car marked clearly with a police sign. The cars were on a routine patrol when they took a call on their radio at around 1.30 am telling them to search for the suspect BMW.
Gunmen in the car had fired at the main police station in the town and drove off into the night. "The Americans knew very well that we have patrols on these roads every night," Mr Jasim said. "We had our lights flashing and our siren on as we went past the American base. But they put their spotlights on us and then they started shooting us. We shouted at them: 'We are police. We are police.' But they just kept on shooting - at our engines, our tyres, the glass, the doors."
Eight policemen in the second car, a pick-up, were killed instantly. Two others in the car were seriously injured.
The shooting lasted at least 30 minutes. "This is so very wrong," Mr Jasim said. "These people are asking us to provide security and then they are killing us."
The US military refused to discuss the incident and issued a statement saying only that one US soldier and five "neutral individuals" were injured in an attack near the Jordanian hospital in Falluja. The statement said US troops were attacked by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. Outside the hospital yesterday lay empty shells from heavy machine gun rounds. There were bullet holes in the main building and a two-storey block to one side was badly damaged.
By late yesterday no US officer had appeared at the main police station in Falluja to apologise or explain what had happened. Lieutenant Ayad Dulaimi, 25, said policing in Falluja had become increasingly difficult because people associated the police with the US military. "We are filled with grief for our dead colleagues," he said. "The fact there has been no apology only adds fuel to the fire."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...041212,00.html
Assuming this story is true, I can't think of a good reason how this 'accident' happenend.
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