G.I.'s Fire on Family in Car, Killing 2, Witnesses Say By EDWARD WONG
Published: January 13, 2004
AGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 12 - American soldiers on Monday night killed an Iraqi man and a boy and wounded four others in a car that was driving behind their convoy after a roadside bomb went off nearby, said witnesses, a police official and relatives of the family in the car.
The soldiers, traveling in a convoy of two Humvees, opened fire on the family, which was riding in a dark blue station wagon, after the bomb exploded on Palestine Street about 300 yards from the Oil Ministry, witnesses said.
The family's driver, a man whose first name was Haider, was killed, as was a 10-year-old boy named Mustafa in the seat beside the driver, said family members, a neighbor and a police officer. Mustafa's mother and two of his siblings and his aunt were injured and taken to local hospitals.
"You want to know the truth?" said Lt. Muhammad Ali, an Iraqi policeman who was driving away from Al Kindi Hospital with several colleagues after taking one of the women there. "I'll tell you the truth. The Americans did this. I know after this conversation they will fire me from my job, but that's what happened."
By the end of the day, in violence around the country involving the American military, an American soldier and at least 9 Iraqis had been killed, and 10 Iraqis and 2 American soldiers wounded.
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Soldiers opened fire on the family in the station wagon traveling behind them, said the witnesses, relatives of the victims and Lieutenant Ali, the police officer. The station wagon crashed into a wall about 200 feet past where the bomb had exploded, and soldiers soon began pulling bodies out, the witnesses said.
About 9:20 p.m., more than two dozen soldiers from the First Armored Division were walking around the scene, inspecting the wrecked car, the ground and the area of the median where the bomb had exploded. One soldier warned a reporter and a photographer to leave the area, saying that "something is about to happen that you won't like." A couple of armored vehicles sat on Palestine Street, blocking several lanes as rain continued to fall.
At nearby Al Kindi Hospital, in the room where three of the wounded from the car were being treated, a woman yelled at a visitor and a Palestinian interpreter as soon as they walked in. "God curse the Americans!" shouted the woman, a relative of the victims. "God curse those who brought them to us!"
The woman's husband, Muhammad Abdul Rahman, 40, said his sister-in-law, Stabrak Abdul Wahab, was the mother of the family in the car and had been taken to a neurological hospital to be treated for her wounds. Mustafa, the child killed, was her son. Stabrak's sister, Hiyam Abdul Wahab, sat on a bed with a dazed expression on her face, a thick white gauze bandage stained with blood wrapped around her forehead.
Next to her sat two more of Stabrak's children, a boy and a girl, both also injured. Mr. Abdul Rahman's wife passed a bottle of water among the wounded.
"Hey, Muhammad, come over here," she said frantically. "There's a bullet in her leg and in her chest. She's bleeding very badly."
Mr. Abdul Rahman said to the visitor: "The Americans shot them, but look, the problem now is there's no one to take care of them. There are no doctors, no treatment. This is horrible."
A nurse said Stabrak Abdul Wahab had been treated in the same hospital for asthma earlier in the evening and had left with her three children and her sister. That was when they ran into the American convoy, the nurse added.
Also on Monday, riots continued in southern Iraq, as about 400 protesters marched on a government building in the city of Kut to demand jobs, The Associated Press reported. Someone in the crowd threw a grenade at Ukrainian soldiers and Iraqi policemen guarding the building, wounding five people, an official said. Ukrainian soldiers then fired into the air to disperse the crowd, he said, and wounded one protester
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