Iraqi soldier shot dead two US troops deliberately

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi soldier opened fire on US troops during a joint patrol in the northern city of Mosul on Dec. 26, killing two and wounding three others along with a civilian interpreter, Iraqi and US officials said on Saturday.

The US military said it was not clear why the Iraqi soldier had opened fire, but two Iraqi generals told Reuters the attacker had links to Sunni Arab insurgent groups.

The US military said in a statement the two soldiers were Captain Rowdy Inman and Sergeant Benjamin Portell, both assigned to 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, III Corps, based in Fort Hood, Texas.

“The Iraqi soldier who allegedly opened fire fled the scene but was identified by other Iraqi army personnel and was then apprehended. Two Iraqi army soldiers are now being held in connection with the incident,” the military said.

In response to the shooting, the Iraqi army has tightened screening of new recruits in its 2nd Division, which controls the Mosul region, and is carrying out more thorough background checks on serving soldiers, the Iraqi generals said.

US and Iraqi troops have been conducting joint patrols as part of a new US counter-insurgency strategy to curb sectarian violence and improve the capabilities of Iraq’s military, which will take over more security responsibilities to allow US forces to begin withdrawing from Iraq.

The commander of the Iraqi army’s 2nd Division, Brigadier-General Mutaa al-Khazraji, told Reuters the US soldiers were killed during a joint patrol in Hermat in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

The patrol “was attacked by gunmen and the soldier abused the situation and killed the two soldiers. The soldier was an insurgent infiltrator,” Khazraji said.

“Shooting deliberate”

Brigadier-General Noor al-Din Hussein, commander of the Iraqi Army’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, told Reuters: “The shooting was deliberate. It was not an accident.”

Iraqi and US soldiers live and work together in joint security stations across Iraq.

“We are partnering with the Iraqi army all over the country in almost all the operations we conduct,” noted US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel James Hutton.

Hussein said the Iraqi soldier had been in the army for only one year and was an Arab from the Jubouri tribe. Most soldiers serving in the Mosul area are from Iraq’s Kurdish minority.

“There is some penetration (by insurgents) and we want to purify the Iraqi army. Our soldiers are good and doing well. This is the first time something like this has happened,” Hussein said.

He said he and Khazraji had attended a memorial service for the slain soldiers. The two generals said the US military were allowing the Iraqi military to handle the investigation.

US commanders have been praising the improving abilities of the Iraqi military, which was rebuilt from scratch after the US invasion and has been beset by a high desertion rate and some units refusing to deploy outside their home provinces.

American generals say Iraqi units have performed well in a series of counter-insurgency operations that have contributed to a 60 percent drop in violence in Iraq since June 2007.

In June 2004 two US soldiers were killed by Iraqi civil defence officers patrolling with them. The Iraqi Civil Defence Corps was created after the US invasion in 2003 and was the forerunner of today’s post-Saddam Iraqi army.

News Source : World News