U.S. roadblock shootings in Iraq kill at least 5

updated 2:08 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2007

BAGHDAD - U.S. troops fired on vehicles trying to drive through roadblocks in Baghdad and north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least five people, including a child, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

Violence in Diyala province left nine Iraqis dead, including seven who were killed by a suicide bomber disguised as a man herding goats.

The shooting in Baghdad took place in a northern neighborhood known to be a Shiite militia stronghold as the driver collected employees of the Rasheed bank, police said. U.S. troops fired warning shots when the bus reached the U.S. roadblock Tuesday and tried to drive through, killing as many as four passengers — including three women, police and hospital officials said.

“As I understand it, some of the warning fire ricocheted and may have killed two to three individuals,” said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.

Smith said the driver was traveling in a lane restricted to passenger cars. In an earlier statement, the U.S. military said two people were killed in the shooting and four were wounded. A manager at Rasheed bank also said the shooting claimed two lives.

A Rasheed employee wearing a bloodied white T-shirt who was hospitalized after the shooting said the passengers initially did not know whether the bus had been hit by bullets or bombs. He said U.S. troops immediately came to the bus to help

“Later, we found out that the American forces opened fire at us. But the thing that I cannot comprehend is that the same Americans who opened fire at us, came immediately to help us,” the man, who identified himself only as Yasir, told AP Television News.

Men, child died in Beiji
During a U.S. operation Monday against al-Qaida in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, American troops shot at a vehicle speeding toward a roadblock after firing warning shots, the military said in a separate statement. Two men in the vehicle were killed immediately, and a child traveling with them died later of his wounds.

“We regret that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces work diligently to rid this country of the terrorist networks that threaten the security of Iraq and our forces,” said Cmdr. Ed Buclatin, a U.S. spokesman. Two terrorism suspects were killed earlier in the operation, the military said.

The Shaab neighborhood in northern Baghdad where Tuesday’s shooting took place is the same district where masked gunmen on Sunday killed 11 relatives of a journalist critical of the Iraqi government, according to colleagues and the media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf, however, denied the Sunday killings had taken place. “The killing of the 11 family members did not take place and that is totally confirmed,” he told The Associated Press.

MORE FROM CONFLICT IN IRAQ

Conflict in Iraq Section Front

Experts: Iraq invasion harmed Babylon Worst violence since U.S. pullback hits Iraq U.S. releases 5 Iranian officials in Iraq Army's new mission: To exit Iraq Conflict in Iraq Section Front   Add Conflict in Iraq headlines to your news reader: