US military regret after deadly air strike on Iraqi house
Posted 1-10-2005 at 07:13 PM
BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military voiced regret after five people were killed in an air strike on a house mistaken for an insurgent hideout in northern Iraq (news - web sites), adding to tensions in the run-up to elections exactly three weeks away.
The US death toll also mounted with a soldier killed in a roadside explosion while he was on patrol in Baghdad, while in other violence insurgents abducted five Iraqi officials Saturday and a former Iraqi army general was assassinated.
According to the latest Pentagon (news - web sites) figures, the death raised to 1,345 the number of soldiers killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, including 1,058 who died in combat.
Meanwhile, Britain's The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that the government will this week announce the politically risky move of sending up to 650 more troops to Iraq to provide security during the January 30 election.
The US military has already announced it is boosting its forces to about 150,000 for the polls, the first since the toppling of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April 2003.
During a US army search for a suspected insurgent leader, an F-16 jet dropped a 500-pound laser guided bomb on a house south of the main northern city of Mosul Saturday, killing five people, the military said.
"The house was not the intended target for the air strike. The intended target was another location nearby," it said. "The multinational force in Iraq deeply regrets the loss of possibly innocent lives."
The military promised an investigation into the incident, which came as US troops swept the area for insurgents ahead of January 30 elections threatened with sabotage by rebels fighting US-led forces and the American-backed Iraqi interim government.
An official from a joint US-Iraqi security center for Salahuddin province said the air strike targeted a suspected insurgent hideout in the village of al-Aitha.
The official put the death toll at 13, including four women and three children, and said the dead were all from the same family.
It was the latest in a series of controversial air strikes by the Americans. On Tuesday, the interior minister for the Kurdish region of Arbil, Karim Senjari, told reporters US aircraft strafed an empty student dormitory in the northern province, but there were no casualties.
In May, a US air strike near Qaim, a town on the border with Syria, killed around 40 people. Locals claimed that the strike hit a wedding party, while the Americans said the house was a gathering point for "terrorists".
Full Story @
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050109/pl_afp/iraq_050109192740
BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military voiced regret after five people were killed in an air strike on a house mistaken for an insurgent hideout in northern Iraq (news - web sites), adding to tensions in the run-up to elections exactly three weeks away.
The US death toll also mounted with a soldier killed in a roadside explosion while he was on patrol in Baghdad, while in other violence insurgents abducted five Iraqi officials Saturday and a former Iraqi army general was assassinated.
According to the latest Pentagon (news - web sites) figures, the death raised to 1,345 the number of soldiers killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, including 1,058 who died in combat.
Meanwhile, Britain's The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that the government will this week announce the politically risky move of sending up to 650 more troops to Iraq to provide security during the January 30 election.
The US military has already announced it is boosting its forces to about 150,000 for the polls, the first since the toppling of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April 2003.
During a US army search for a suspected insurgent leader, an F-16 jet dropped a 500-pound laser guided bomb on a house south of the main northern city of Mosul Saturday, killing five people, the military said.
"The house was not the intended target for the air strike. The intended target was another location nearby," it said. "The multinational force in Iraq deeply regrets the loss of possibly innocent lives."
The military promised an investigation into the incident, which came as US troops swept the area for insurgents ahead of January 30 elections threatened with sabotage by rebels fighting US-led forces and the American-backed Iraqi interim government.
An official from a joint US-Iraqi security center for Salahuddin province said the air strike targeted a suspected insurgent hideout in the village of al-Aitha.
The official put the death toll at 13, including four women and three children, and said the dead were all from the same family.
It was the latest in a series of controversial air strikes by the Americans. On Tuesday, the interior minister for the Kurdish region of Arbil, Karim Senjari, told reporters US aircraft strafed an empty student dormitory in the northern province, but there were no casualties.
In May, a US air strike near Qaim, a town on the border with Syria, killed around 40 people. Locals claimed that the strike hit a wedding party, while the Americans said the house was a gathering point for "terrorists".
Full Story @
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050109/pl_afp/iraq_050109192740
