US defends checkpoint killings

Allied commanders today blamed Iraq's "tactics of terrorism" after US troops opened fire on two civilian cars approaching checkpoints, killing at least eight civilians, including women and children.

In the worst incident, American soldiers killed seven women and children in a van which they said failed to stop in southern Iraq.

Within a few hours an unarmed man in a pickup truck was killed by US marines on the main highway outside the southern town of Shatra.

US Commander General Tommy Franks's spokesman Jim Wilkinson said of the first shooting: "The incident was a tragedy and we have some civilian dead, unfortunately. It's a shame it had to happen."

He went on: "This is indicative of a bigger problem, the tactics of terrorism being employed by the regime death squads."

He added: "Certainly, our checkpoints are being a little more aggressive out front but that's to be expected. These are young kids out there from the UK and Australia and the US and if they are under threat, they will fire."

The first checkpoint shooting happened when soldiers from the US 3rd Infantry Division fired on a Toyota van speeding towards a checkpoint near Karbala carrying 13 people.

US officials said the van failed to stop after warning shots were fired and attempts were made to halt the vehicle.

"As a last resort, the soldiers fired into the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Inside the vehicle they found 13 women and children. Seven of the occupants were dead, two were wounded and four were unharmed," said a US army spokesman.

The incident happened close to where an Iraqi suicide car bomb exploded on Saturday, killing four US soldiers. Since then troops have been ordered to be especially vigilant.

"It was the most horrible thing I have ever seen, and I hope I never see it again," Sergeant Mario Manzano, 26, from Bravo Company told the Washington Post.
He said one of the wounded women sat in the vehicle holding the mangled bodies of two of her children. "She didn't want to get out of the car," he said.

The Post said a US captain watched through binoculars and used his radio to order the soldiers to fire a warning shot first and then shoot a machine gun round into the vehicle's radiator. When the vehicle kept coming, the captain
ordered: "Stop him!"

About a dozen shots of 25mm cannon fire were heard from one or more of the platoon's Bradley fighting vehicles, the Post said.

The captain then shouted over the radio at the platoon leader: "You just f****** killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!"

British forces spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon acknowledged that incidents like this undermined efforts to win the support of the Iraqi people.
"If you were a civilian watching that, of course you would interpret it in that way," he said.

But he said junior officers had the "full backing" of their superiors to make snap decisions about a situation "whichever way it goes".

As US Marines continued their inch-by-inch advance on Baghdad from Karbala, Nasiriyah and Najaf, British forces around Basra were hoping for further progress in their push towards Iraq's second city.

By nightfall yesterday, Royal Marines were mopping up the last resistance from Saddam loyalists in Abu Al Khasib, a southern suburb.

The success of Operation James, the first urban infantry assault by British troops, may lead to a full advance on Basra, a city believed to be controlled by a small but desperate pro-Saddam minority.

British troops received a warm welcome from the civilian population with children and adults giving the thumbs-up, smiling and shouting "Mister, mister, England good".

"We were meant to be giving them food but they keep coming up to us and giving us stuff," one surprised Royal Marine said.

In nearby Al Zubayr, Safwan and Rumaila, where British forces have smashed the grip of Saddam's ruling Baath party and begun to distribute aid, soldiers were beginning to patrol the streets wearing berets rather than helmets, a sign of the level of control the Allies have now exerted on the strategic towns.

A British military source said: "We are moving from a very aggressive stance to possibly getting back to normality. We've had that policy in place in Umm Qasr for a couple of days now."

British soldiers from the Duke of Wellington Regiment killed or captured 17 Iraqi troops near Safwan overnight, military sources said.

They attacked a dug-in position just west of the town.

Meanwhile, the British death toll climbed to 26 today after a British soldier was killed in southern Iraq yesterday while attempting to dismantle munitions, the Ministry of Defence announced today.

A spokesman said the soldier, whose name and rank have not been disclosed, was a bomb disposal expert.

His next of kin have been informed but further details were not being released until all of his extended family have been contacted.

Last night Baghdad came under renewed heavy bombardment and US troops engaged in fierce battles with Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guards protecting the approaches to the Iraqi capital.

Explosions also rumbled through the south of Baghdad early today, hours after a series of powerful blasts shook the centre, sending smoke billowing from the Old Palace presidential compound and from across the Tigris River where another central target was struck.

In Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Tori Clarke said US officials had seen evidence that members of Saddam's family, and the families of senior Iraqi officials, had tried to escape although she refuse to elaborate.

But Saddam's aides dismissed the claim today.
"The rumour that the family of President Saddam Hussein has left Iraq is a repeat of a lie that was previously voiced by the Pentagon. The immediate family of leader Saddam Hussein is part and parcel of the great and larger Iraqi family," they said in a presidential statement read out on Iraqi state TV.

"President Saddam Hussein has linked his fate and the fate of his immediate family to the honourable values of the Iraqi people and the fate of Saddam Hussein's immediate family will be similar to the fate of the bigger family of Iraq."