IRAQ: U.S. air raid kills Iraqi family, Iraqi security forces said.

Record ID: 341608

  • Title: IRAQ: U.S. air raid kills Iraqi family, Iraqi security forces said.
  • Date: 4th January 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF BAIJI HOSPITAL SIGN
  • Embargoed: 19th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVABZPH10BX5IVSVKOXW6PDDCFZR
  • Story Text: A U.S. air strike killed several members of a family in the oil refining town of Baiji in northern Iraq, Iraqi security forces said on Tuesday (January 3).
    The U.S. military, responding to an inquiry, said aircraft had targeted a house after three men suspected of planting a roadside bomb were seen entering the building late on Monday (January 2).
    The military statement made no mention of casualties and said Iraqi police had handled the scene after the attack.
    Local people at the scene of the blast said seven bodies were recovered from the rubble, including at least two children.
    A neighbour of the family told reporters, "At dinner time a U.S. jet fired a rocket, my house is very close to here, I ran immediately after that when I arrive here I saw this, it's a catastrophe."
    A police official in the regional capital Tikrit said six people were killed and three wounded, although an official at the Joint Coordination Centre, which liaises between U.S. and Iraqi forces in Salahaddin province, said 14 had died.
    Officials named the householder as Ghadhban Nahi Hussein.
    A statement from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division in response to an inquiry about the deaths said soldiers monitoring video footage from a reconnaissance drone spotted three men apparently digging a hole around 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) "following the common pattern of roadside bomb emplacement".
    Bomber pilots were alerted, the military statement said: "The individuals left the road site and were followed from the air to a nearby building. Coalition forces employed precision guided munitions on the structure."
    The statement did not say whether a roadside bomb was found.
    Baiji has seen considerable rebel attacks, including efforts by insurgents to disrupt oil and fuel flows through its refinery, the biggest in Iraq. The closure of the refinery last month has caused serious shortages in fuel across the country, although the plant reopened again late on Monday.
    U.S. forces have used air power increasingly throughout the past year. Official military data show only one strike was carried out in March and the average in the first quarter was five strikes per month compared to over 50 in the last quarter.
    Iraqi medical staff, police and political leaders, particularly in the restive, Sunni Arab-dominated west and north, have reported civilian casualties in such raids; U.S. commanders say they make every effort to minimise that risk.
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