Date:   4/1/2003 5:19:01 PM ( 21 y ago)
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CHILDREN KILLED AT CHECKPOINT


11:00 - 01 April 2003

American troops killed seven women and children at a checkpoint in southern Iraq when the van in which they were travelling failed to stop. Two other civilians were wounded in the incident at an army checkpoint on a road near Najaf, a US military official said.

The military is investigating, he added.

The dead and wounded were among 13 women and children in a van which approached the checkpoint but did not stop, the official said.

The incident happened at about 4.30 pm local time yesterday and involved soldiers from the US 3rd Infantry Division.

US Central Command said the soldiers fired warning shots at the car after it failed to stop as it approached the checkpoint.

A spokesman said: "The soldiers then fired shots into the engine of the vehicle but it continued moving towards the checkpoint.

"Initial reports indicate the soldiers responded in accordance with the rules of engagement to protect themselves."

An investigation into the incident is underway and the spokesman said the US was probing whether the incident was somehow part of an Iraqi ploy.

He said: "We don't know the situation of the seven dead and two wounded.We're still trying to figure out whether they had been harmed beforehand."

It was not immediately known whether any weapons or explosives were found in the vehicle, the spokesman said.

Soldiers fired warning shots and then shots into the vehicle's engine, neither of which stopped it, he said.

Four Army soldiers were killed at a checkpoint near Najaf - possibly the same one - on Saturday by a car bomb detonated by an Iraqi soldier dressed as a civilian.

A US military spokesman said: "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, four were unharmed."

US Central Command issued a statement about the shooting.

It said: "In light of recent terrorist attacks by the Iraqi regime, the soldiers exercised considerable restraint to avoid the unnecessary loss of life."

It is the first reported incident in the war in which Iraqi civilians have died by American gunfire and was expected to spark more protests in the Arab world.

Allied pressure on the Iraqi capital Baghdad was increasing today after another night of heavy bombing and with US troops engaging the elite Republican Guards protecting the approaches to the city.

Explosions rumbled through the south of Baghdad early today, hours after a series of powerful blasts shook the centre, bathing the sky in orange and sending smoke billowing from the Old Palace presidential compound.

Across the Tigris River another central target was struck.

These were some of the strongest blasts since the air war began on March 20.

Earlier yesterday warplanes and cruise missiles again struck the Old Palace compound, targeting a palace used by Saddam Hussein's younger son Qusay.

Coalition bombers, including long range B-1s, B-52s and B-2 "stealth" aircraft working together for the first time, pounded a string of targets in the city.

The series of engagements fought by US troops with the Republican Guard were their first sustained contacts with the Iraqi dictator's best troops as they sought to prepare the ground for the final assault on Baghdad.

The US Defence Department said Allied air strikes had caused "a very significant weakening" of Iraqi forces, and Iraqi commanders were moving Guard troops around to shore up their strength.

A week of heavy bombing has left some of the Guard units surrounding Baghdad at less than half strength, with the Medina and Baghdad divisions the most severely affected, Pentagon officials said.

US military sources described the contacts with the Medina Division, protecting the southern approaches to Baghdad as "skirmishing" ahead of the main battle.

"We are targeting them, we are destroying a number of them, we are taking away their ability to fight, " the coalition's deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Vince Brooks, told reporters at Central Command, Qatar.

American patrols were said to be probing the defences of the capital, some crossing the "red line" supposedly drawn around the city by Saddam, marking the point he will use chemical weapons if the coalition forces advance beyond it.

Some of the fiercest fighting took place at the town of Hindiyah, 50 miles south of Baghdad, where US troops from the 3rd Infantry Division reportedly killed at least 35 Iraqi soldiers in a dawn assault.

Several dozen Republican Guards were also reportedly taken prisoner in the operation.

Meanwhile, fresh US forces are flowing to the Gulf, including 500 members of an Army cavalry regiment being sent ahead of schedule to help protect supply lines from Iraqi attack.



 

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