Iraq rejects US probe clearing troops of killings - Yahoo! News

Iraq rejects US probe clearing troops of killings - Yahoo! News: "Sat Jun 3, 6:31 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -
Iraq vowed on Saturday to press on with its own probe into the deaths of civilians in a U.S. raid on the town of Ishaqi, rejecting the U.S. military's exoneration of its forces.

Adnan al-Kazimi, an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the government would also demand an apology from the United States and compensation for the victims in several cases, including the alleged massacre in the town of Haditha last year.

'We have from more than one source that the Ishaqi killings were carried out under questionable circumstances. More than one child was killed. This report was not fair for the Iraqi people and the children who were killed,' he told Reuters.

The U.S. military had issued a statement about Ishaqi saying allegations that U.S. troops 'executed a family ... and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false.'

WIDESPREAD SUSPICION

Maliki, who took office two weeks ago at the helm of a U.S. backed national unity government, is battling a widespread public perception that U.S. troops can shoot and kill with impunity and Iraqi leaders are too weak to do anything about it.

"Ishaqi is just another reason why we shouldn't trust the Americans," said Abdullah Hussein, an engineer in Baghdad.

"First they lied about the weapons of mass destruction, then there was the

Abu Ghraib

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Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and now it's clear to the world they were guilty in Haditha," he told Reuters.

A tribal leader in Ishaqi said it was clear that U.S. forces were above the law in Iraq."

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Maliki this week condemned the suspected massacre in Haditha as a "terrible crime" and demanded that the United States hand over the files on the investigation.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, met Maliki in Baghdad on Friday and promised to give him all the evidence and materials from the Haditha probe.