Military Offers Condolences,
Starts Probe Into Deaths of 8 Iraqi Policemen, 1 Other

Troops in Fallujah Incident Were Fired Upon, U.S. Says

AP 13sep03

FALLUJAH, Iraq—Gunfire crackled from every corner of Fallujah on Saturday and mourners shouted "America is the enemy of Allah," as angry residents gathered to bury eight Iraqi police killed in a friendly fire incident involving U.S. forces.

The U.S. military offered its condolences, but also said American troops only opened fire after they were shot at first.

In all, nine people died in the incident early Friday -- the eight Iraqi police and one Jordanian national. On Saturday, eight flag-draped coffins were carried into the Sunni Muslim Al-Mahmoud mosque for religious rites before they were given to family members for burial.

As gunfire erupted throughout this city 30 miles west of Baghdad, mosque imam Fawzi Namiq called for an end to the shooting. "Save your bullets for the chests of the enemy," he told the crowd through loudspeakers.

In the streets, angry residents roughed up reporters who came to witness the funeral ceremony and burials. A clergyman grabbed one man and prevented him from shooting at a departing Associated Press Television News car as it sped from the city. A CNN cameraman was beaten and an Associated Press photographer was hit in the face.

"We want the Americans to leave our country because they have brought us only death," said Taleb Hameed, a 30-year-old schoolteacher. "We are fed up with their apologies. We will continue our resistance."

The U.S. military issued an apology for the incident, saying it wanted "to express our deepest regret for this incident to the families who have lost loved ones and express our sincerest condolences." It said an investigation had begun.

However, military spokesman Lt. Col. George Krivo also said the Americans only fired after they were "attacked from a truck by unknown forces."

"Coalition forces," he said, "immediately returned fire and the subsequent engagement lasted approximately three hours. Regrettably during the incident, extensive damage was done to the [Jordanian] hospital and several security personnel were killed, including eight Iraqis and one Jordanian national."

Jordan's official Petra news agency said Secretary of State Colin Powell called Jordan's foreign minister expressing regret for the "sad incident," which occurred near the hospital on the west side of Fallujah.

As the burial ceremony got underway Saturday, some in the crowd shouted, "There is no God but Allah. America is the enemy of Allah." Tribal leaders and city dignitaries called for a one-day general strike on Sunday and a three-day period of mourning to begin the same day.

A black banner was strung above the one-story Fallujah Protection Force headquarters building and carried the names of the eight dead. "The Fallujah Protection Force mourns the martyrdom of its members who have been killed at the hands of American forces," the banner also read.

The force is a U.S.-trained paramilitary group that patrols the greater Fallujah region against crime and sabotage.

U.S. troops directing reconstruction projects from the Fallujah mayor's office weren't there Saturday. Police at the mayor's office said the Americans" absence was understandable given Friday's events.

Many Iraqis claim friends and relatives have been shot and killed when they failed to stop at U.S. checkpoints in Baghdad. But Friday's shooting was the most serious reported friendly fire incident involving U.S. forces and the growing U.S.-sponsored Iraqi police, militia and military.

About an hour after the Fallujah shooting and 30 miles to the west, two U.S. soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in a pre-dawn raid in the town of Ramadi, the American military said. The U.S. military gave no other information about the second shooting in the Fallujah region, where support for Saddam Hussein runs strong.

Many Iraqis claim friends and relatives have been shot and killed when they failed to stop at U.S. checkpoints in Baghdad, but until Friday there had been no reports of so-called "friendly fire" involving U.S. forces and the growing U.S.-sponsored Iraqi police, militia and military.

"We shouted "We are police. We are police." Then we drove off the road into a field," Arkan Adnan Ahmed, 19 years old, said from Fallujah Hospital, where he was being treated for a shoulder wound. "They started shooting from all sides." He said the shooting began about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

About 25 uniformed Iraqi policemen in two pickup trucks and a sedan were chasing a white BMW known to have been used by highway bandits near Fallujah , said Asem Mohammed, a police sergeant who was among the wounded.

Two of the vehicles pursuing the bandits were painted in the blue and white colors of the Iraqi police, while the pickup truck with the gun mounted on it was white.

As the chase neared a checkpoint near the Jordanian Hospital, the police turned around after losing sight of their quarry, and a nearby American patrol opened fire, Mr. Mohammed said.

"We were chasing a white BMW with bandits. We turned around in front of Jordanian Hospital and some American forces started shooting at us," Mr. Mohammed said.

Mr. Ahmed, who was driving one of the Iraqi police cars, said the sudden appearance of the unmarked pickup truck with the machine gun mounted on top may have prompted the Americans to begin firing.

Members of the Jordanian armed forces guarding the hospital apparently also opened fire when the Americans began shooting, catching the Iraqi police in a crossfire.

Shell casings left behind and examined by an Associated Press reporter suggested the Iraqis didn't fire a shot. There were none of the AK-47 shell casings used by Iraqi police forces on the ground. The casings were all those of weapons used by U.S. forces.

Mr. Ahmed said the shooting lasted about 45 minutes and that all the Iraqi dead were in the armed pickup truck.

The 100-bed Jordanian military field hospital was badly shot up in the attack. The hospital was set up in April to provide Iraqis and others with medical care in Fallujah. It also houses diplomats transferred after a car bomb attack on the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad last month.

The U.S. military said its investigation of the shooting would be lead by Brig. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser of the 101st Airborne Division.

Mr. Powell plans to visit Iraq next week, and Jordan's King Abdullah II will hold talks next week with President Bush at Camp David. The war in Iraq is expected to dominate the meetings.

In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Saturday, one Iraqi was killed and two were wounded when guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. Army patrol. The shot missed the Americans but hit a garbage truck.

The attacker got out of a taxi and fired the rocket. The soldiers fired back, but the attacker fled in the taxi, apparently unharmed, an Army spokesman said.

Gunfire Erupts During Burial Of Iraqi Police In Fallujah

AP 13sep03

FALLUJAH, Iraq—Gunfire crackled from every corner of Fallujah on Saturday and mourners shouted "America is the enemy of Allah" as angry residents gathered to bury eight Iraqi police killed in a friendly fire incident involving U.S. forces.

The U.S. military offered its condolences, but also said American troops only opened fire after they were shot at first.

In all, nine people died in the incident early Friday - the eight Iraqi police and one Jordanian national. On Saturday, eight flag-draped coffins were carried into the Sunni Muslim Al-Mahmoud mosque for religious rites before they were given to family members for burial.

As gunfire erupted throughout this city 30 miles west of Baghdad, mosque imam Fawzi Namiq called for an end to the shooting.

"Save your bullets for the chests of the enemy," he told the crowd through loudspeakers.

In the streets, angry residents roughed up reporters who came to witness the funeral ceremony and burials. A clergyman grabbed one armed man and prevented him from shooting at a departing Associated Press Television News car as it sped from the city. A CNN cameraman was beaten and an Associated Press photographer was hit in the face.

"We want the Americans to leave our country because they have brought us only death," said Taleb Hameed, a 30-year-old schoolteacher. "We are fed up with their apologies. We will continue our resistance."

As reported, the U.S. military issued an apology for the incident, saying it wanted "to express our deepest regret for this incident to the families who have lost loved ones and express our sincerest condolences." It said an investigation had begun.

However, military spokesman Lt. Col. George Krivo also said the Americans only fired after they were "attacked from a truck by unknown forces."

"Coalition forces," he said, "immediately returned fire and the subsequent engagement lasted approximately three hours. Regrettably during the incident extensive damage was done to the (Jordanian) hospital and several security personnel were killed, including eight Iraqis and one Jordanian national."

Jordan's official Petra news agency said Secretary of State Colin Powell called Jordan's foreign minister expressing regret for the "sad incident," which occurred near the hospital on the west side of Fallujah.

As the burial ceremony got underway Saturday, some in the crowd shouted, "There is no God but Allah. America is the enemy of Allah." Tribal leaders and city dignitaries called for a one-day general strike on Sunday and a three-day period of mourning to begin the same day.

A black banner was strung above the one-story Fallujah Protection Force headquarters building and carried the names of the eight dead. "The Fallujah Protection Force mourns the martyrdom of its members who have been killed at the hands of American forces," the banner also read.

The force is a U.S.-trained paramilitary group that patrols the greater Fallujah region against crime and sabotage.

U.S. troops directing reconstruction projects from the Fallujah mayor's office weren't there Saturday. Police at the mayor's office said the Americans' absence was understandable given Friday's events.

8 Iraqi Police Killed In Mistaken Shootout With US Army

AP 12sep03

FALLUJAH, Iraq—Eight Fallujah policemen were killed and five other people were wounded early Friday in an apparently mistaken shootout with U.S. forces, a doctor said.

In the Fallujah shooting at about 1:30 a.m. (2130 GMT), 25 policemen in three vehicles, two pickup trucks and a sedan, were chasing a white BMW known to have been used by highway bandits. As the chase neared the Jordanian Hospital on the west side of Fallujah , 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, the police turned around and an U.S. Humvee opened fire, said Asem Mohammed, 23, a police sergeant who was among the injured.

"We were chasing a white BMW with bandits. We turned around in front of Jordanian Hospital and some American forces started shooting at us," he said.

Dr. Dial Jumaili, who practices at the Jordanian Hospital, said there were eight dead policemen when he came out to treat the victims. He said two were in serious condition and taken to the Fallujah Hospital. Five other people were injured in the shooting, including a guard at the Jordanian Hospital.

The U.S. military has provided no information on the incident.

In the separate firefight in Ramadi, 50 kilometers west of Fallujah , two American soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a firefight that broke out during a raid at 3 a.m. Friday, the military said.

No other details were given.

In the Fallujah Hospital, where the injured were taken in the mistaken shootout between police and American forces, policeman Arkan Adnan Ahmed said the shooting lasted about 45 minutes. He was shot in the shoulder.

He said the sudden appearance of one of the police vehicles, an unmarked pickup truck with a machine gun mounted on top, may have prompted the Americans to begin firing. "We shouted 'we are police. We are police.' Then we drove off the road into a field."

The Fallujah Gov. Taha Badawi ordered the bodies taken to Ramadi for autopsies before they were returned to the families.

Apparent Friendly Fire
Kills 8 Iraq Policeman, 1 Jordanian

AP 12sep03

FALLUJAH, Iraq—U.S. forces killed eight Iraqi police and a Jordanian security guard, and wounded nine other people before dawn Friday in the deadliest friendly fire incident since the end of major fighting, said Iraqi police, a doctor and a Jordanian news agency.

So far, the U.S. military has described the incident only by saying that U.S. soldiers were fired upon with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms in an attack in Fallujah , wounding one U.S. soldier and five "neutral individuals." It gave no other details, and said nothing about deaths.

But according to the Jordanian news agency Petra, after the incident Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher received a phone call from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressing regret for the battle which killed one of the Jordanians working at the field hospital where the incident occurred.

Petra said that Powell offered condolences for the "sad incident."

The Fallujah region has been one of the most dangerous for U.S. soldiers, with support for Saddam Hussein running strong in the area.

In the apparent friendly fire incident, the Iraqi police came under fire from the U.S. troops about 1:30 a.m. in Fallujah as about 25 uniformed policemen in two pickup trucks and a sedan were chasing a white BMW known to have been used by highway bandits, said Asem Mohammed, a 23-year-old police sergeant who was among the injured.

Two of the vehicles pursuing the bandits in the darkness were painted in the blue and white colors of the Iraqi police, while the pickup truck with the gun mounted on it was white.

As the chase neared a checkpoint near the Jordanian Hospital on the west side of Fallujah , the police turned around after losing sight of the BMW, and a U.S. patrol at the location opened fire, Mohammed said.

"We were chasing a white BMW with bandits. We turned around in front of Jordanian Hospital and some American forces started shooting at us," Mohammed said.

Members of the Jordanian armed forces guarding the hospital apparently also opened fire when the U.S. forces began shooting, catching the Iraqi police in a crossfire. After the incident, heavily armed Jordanian security guards were seen examining a bullet-riddled building just inside the walled hospital compound.

"We were in-between firing from all sides," Mohammed said. "We were in the middle."

An Associated Press reporter who saw some of the dead Iraqis said they were in uniform - a blue shirt with insignia.

The 100-bed Jordanian military field hospital was sent in April to provide Iraqis and others with medical care in Fallujah , about 30 miles west of Baghdad. It also houses diplomats that were transferred there after the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad was attacked with a car bomb last month.

Dr. Dial Jumaili, who came to treat the wounded, said there were eight dead policemen. Nine people were wounded, two seriously.

Policeman Arkan Adnan Ahmed, who was shot in the shoulder, said the battle lasted about 45 minutes.

He said the sudden appearance of the unmarked pickup truck with the machine gun mounted on top may have prompted the U.S. soldiers to begin firing: "We shouted, 'We are police! We are police!' Then we drove off the road into a field."

Fallujah Gov. Taha Badawi ordered the bodies taken to Ramadi for autopsies before they were returned to the families.

There were other unconfirmed reports of violence in the Fallujah region Friday after a message carrying Saddam's name appeared on at least one building.

The message praised the people of the city for their resistance to the U.S. occupation and named it capital of al-Anbar province. The nearby city of Ramadi is the capital of the Sunni dominated al-Anbar province.

US Soldiers Kill 8 Iraqi Police at Checkpoint

GIs fire as officers chase crooks in Fallujah

VIVIENNE WALT / SF Chronicle 13sep03

Fallujah, Iraq—U.S. soldiers killed eight Iraqi police officers and a Jordanian security guard, after firing on their three-car convoy early Friday morning in the most lethal incident of mistaken identity since the end of major fighting in April. Nine others were wounded.

The deaths in this volatile city 50 miles west of Baghdad are sure to inflame already mounting anger against American forces and further complicate efforts to stabilize postwar Iraq.

Relatives of the dead police officers protested Friday against both U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi police, whom they accused of being a proxy force for the American occupation. Several relatives converged on Fallujah's police station, while shaken officers took refuge behind a tall, wrought-iron gate.

"Open the door, you sons of bitches!" screamed Eyad Malek al-Isawi, whose brother Riad was one of eight victims of the Fallujah Protection Force, a city militia trained, uniformed and equipped by the U.S. military. "My brother was killed because of you! His blood will not be spilled like this," al-Isawi yelled as he attempted to grab the rifle of a patrolman standing on a sidewalk.

As his friends dragged him from the gate, one turned and screamed: "There's no government here! There's no police here, you are all agents of America!"

Residents of Fallujah, a heavily Sunni Muslim city, were traditionally strong supporters of Saddam Hussein. Sunni Arabs make up one-fifth of the population of Iraq but have long dominated the country's political and economic life, and many Sunnis fear that the U.S.-led occupation may end that primacy.

VIOLENCE ELSEWHERE

In a surge of fresh violence, two U.S. soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a separate incident during a raid in Ramadi, a city west of Fallujah and one of the points of the so-called Sunni Triangle, an area of anti-American resistance west and north of Baghdad. Also, a fierce gunbattle raged in the crowded streets of central Baghdad for 45 minutes Friday afternoon, as American soldiers and Iraqi police cornered alleged car thieves, arresting three suspects.

Details of the accidental shootings in Fallujah remained sketchy, but officers of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division said their soldiers came under fire at about 1:30 a.m. from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. A GI was wounded.

The U.S. military had no comment on whether any Iraqis were killed in the incident, but it acknowledged that a gunfight took place outside the Jordanian hospital, wounding a soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division.

INJURED POLICE TALK

Iraqi police who were injured had plenty to say.

They said that shortly before dawn about 25 uniformed police officers in two pickup trucks and a sedan were chasing a white BMW known to have been used by highway bandits. As the chase neared a U.S. military checkpoint guarded by tanks, the police lost sight of the BMW and turned around. American soldiers opened fire as the convoy neared a military field hospital administered by the Jordanian government.

Arkan Adnan Ahmed, an Iraqi police officer wounded in the shoulder, told the Associated Press that the fusillade lasted about 45 minutes and that the Iraqi police had identified themselves in English and Arabic to the U.S. soldiers.

"We shouted: 'We are police! We are police!' "Ahmed said from his hospital bed in Fallujah. "Then we drove off the road into a field."

The sedan and one of the trucks were white with blue markings that read, "Iraqi Police, Fallujah." The other truck, which had a heavy machine gun mounted in back, was unmarked, police said. Members of Fallujah's police force expressed amazement that they were fired on, since they operate under U.S. military authorization.

"We have permission from the Americans. We have identification," said Khaled Rashid of the Fallujah Protection Force.

GRISLY SCENE

Scores of shells lay on the ground outside the hospital Friday, and bloodied scraps of clothing and human skin were on the gravel shoulder of the road outside the hospital. An adjoining building housing hospital staff was riddled with bullet holes. Jordanian officials said that a Jordanian hospital employee in the building had been killed and four others wounded.

After months of protests and attacks, U.S. forces mostly withdrew from Fallujah in June under an agreement with local leaders. Residents are still deeply embittered over an incident in late April, when soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division fired on demonstrators, killing about 16 people.

"The Americans withdrew from Fallujah and there was peace. Now they want to destroy that peace," said 25-year-old Mohammed Khaled.

Along the city's main thoroughfare, anti-U.S. slogans are emblazoned on walls: "We have the right to kill the American occupiers," and "Hit with rocket-propelled grenades and don't hesitate."

The killings of the Iraqi police officers by friendly fire could complicate the U.S. effort to absorb thousands of Iraqis into a postwar administration. American officials have repeatedly said they regard the 37,000 Iraqi police officers as crucial to that effort and one of the occupation's proudest achievements since Hussein's government collapsed.

The incident is also likely to deepen the cynicism among many Iraqis about the ability of local police to secure the country. The U.S. military has ordered armed militias controlled by political parties to disarm by today.

In Baghdad Friday, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose brother—a prominent Shiite cleric—was killed by a powerful car bomb along with 124 others in Najaf two weeks ago, refused to say whether he would disband the armed wing of his political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The council's Badr Brigade has been patrolling the streets near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf since the bomb exploded outside it.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said Thursday that such militias are illegal. Al-Hakim said the continued armed presence was under discussion with American authorities.

"The Badr forces can play an important role in protecting Iraqis," al-Hakim said. "We don't believe in militia, but there's an emergency situation in this country. We face a real danger."

In Fallujah, Sabah Ali Ibrahim, 25, who visited the Jordanian hospital Friday, summed up the city's anger: "People here feel America is behind all the problems in Fallujah."