US Troops Kill as Many as 7 Civilians in Shootings in Iraq

By VOA News

27 November 2007





Iraqi officials say American troops in Baghdad have killed as many as seven Iraqi civilians, including a child, in two separate shootings.

In one incident, Iraqi security officials say as many as four people were killed Tuesday when U.S. troops opened fire on a minibus. Officials say the troops shot at the vehicle as it advanced toward a roadblock in Baghdad's northern Shaab neighborhood.

A U.S. military spokesman says the street is restricted to passenger cars, and the driver failed to heed a warning shot.

In other news, a delegation of Sunni religious leaders met with Iraq's most respected Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf today. A Sunni cleric says Sistani called for unity and an end to sectarian violence in the country.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. military said troops opened fire on a car speeding toward a checkpoint in Baiji Monday, killing two men and a child. A spokesman said the military regrets that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces work to rid Iraq of terrorist networks.

In other violence, Iraqi police say a suicide bomber killed six people and wounded several others after detonating explosives at the entrance to a police headquarters in the central city of Baquba Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said Warsaw could withdraw all its troops from Iraq by mid-2008. Klich made the remark in an interview published in the Polish daily newspaper, Rzeczpospolita.

Poland has about 900 soldiers in southern Iraq.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

