WASHINGTON POST: LAUNCH INVESTIGATION OF 3 IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS INCLUDING A TWO-YEAR OLD GIRL BY U.S. MILITARY

U.S. Military Investigates 3 Civilian Deaths

By Sudarsan RaghavanWashington Post Foreign ServiceSaturday, April 5, 2008; A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403431.html

BAGHDAD, April 4 -- The U.S. military has launched an investigation into the shooting deaths of three Iraqi civilians, including a 2-year-old girl, after numerous witnesses reported that they were killed by gunfire from American soldiers.

Last Saturday evening, Abbas Ramadan was killed along with his granddaughter Tabarik as they sat outside their house in Baghdad's Zafraniya neighborhood. Witnesses said U.S. troops fired in their direction, apparently targeting a group of young men whom they believed to be Shiite militiamen. A neighbor, Abbas Fadhil, was also killed, while another neighbor was injured, with bullet wounds to the leg and chest.

On Tuesday, after an article about the incident was published in The Washington Post, U.S. soldiers in four Humvees visited relatives of the victims. A U.S. military officer apologized to the relatives and offered compensation, relatives said. U.S. soldiers took photos of the wall of a house, a gate, and a storefront pocked with large bullet holes.

Tabarik's father, Ghadeer Abbas, said he handed the U.S. officer a badly dented and misshapen bullet that he said was proof that the U.S. soldiers had fired in their direction.