stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war

Iraqi health minister: ‘150,000 civilians killed in war’ | By Steven Hurst | Associated Press

11/10/06 "AP" -- -- BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war -- about three times previously accepted estimates.
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Previous estimates of Iraq deaths held that 45,000 to 50,000 have been killed in the nearly 44-month-old conflict, according to partial figures from Iraqi institutions and media reports. No official count has ever been available.

Health Minister Ali Al-Shemari gave his new estimate of 150,000 to reporters during a visit to Vienna, Austria. He later told The Associated Press that he based the figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals -- though such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.

"It is an estimate," Al-Shemari said. He blamed Sunni insurgents, Wahhabis -- Sunni religious extremists -- and criminal gangs for the deaths.

Hassan Salem, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, said the 150,000 figure included civilians, police and the bodies of people who were abducted, later found dead and collected at morgues run by the Health Ministry. SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shiite political organization and holds the largest number of seats in parliament.

In October, the British medical journal The Lancet published a controversial study contending nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war -- a far higher death toll than other estimates. The study, which was dismissed by President Bush and other US officials as not credible, was based on interviews of households and not a body count.

Al-Shemari disputed that figure Thursday.

"Since three and a half years, since the change of the Saddam regime, some people say we have 600,000 are killed. This is an exaggerated number. I think 150 [thousand] is okay," he said. ...

Coroner seeks trial for US troops who killed TV man

Coroner seeks trial for US troops who killed TV manAudrey Gillan and Julian Borger in Washington | Saturday October 14, 2006 | The Guardian

The American soldiers who shot dead the ITN journalist Terry Lloyd could face trial in a British court for murder after a coroner ruled that they had unlawfully killed an innocent civilian.

Andrew Walker, the assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire, said yesterday he would be writing to the attorney general and the director of public prosecutions "to see whether any steps can be taken to bring the perpetrators responsible for this to justice".

The verdict was welcomed by Lloyd's family, employers and the National Union of Journalists. His widow Lynn accused US forces of allowing soldiers to "behave like trigger-happy cowboys in an area in which there were civilians travelling on a highway". In a statement she said: "The marines who fired on civilians and those who gave those orders should now stand trial. Under the Geneva Conventions Act, that trial should be for the murder of Terry Lloyd and nothing less."

Lloyd's daughter Chelsey, 24, said: "My father was unlawfully killed by a bullet to the head from a heavy-calibre machine gun fired by US marines. The killing of my father would seem to amount to murder."

A spokesman for the attorney general said he would await the letter from the coroner. The Pentagon issued a statement saying it had "never deliberately targeted non-combatants, including journalists".

Lloyd, 50, was killed on the morning of March 22 at a bridge on the road to Basra. He and his team were working independently of the military, and was injured in the crossfire between US and Iraqi forces. It was while he was being taken to hospital in a civilian vehicle that he received a fatal bullet in the head from American guns. The coroner said he had "no doubt" this was "an unlawful act". ...

US troops unlawfully killed UK journalist:: "... appear to have allowed their soldiers to behave like trigger-happy cowboys."

U.S. troops unlawfully killed UK journalist: coronerOct 13, 7:46 AM (ET) | By Eleanor Wason

OXFORD (Reuters) - One of Britain's most experienced journalists was unlawfully killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, a British inquest into his death ruled on Friday, prompting calls for the perpetrators to be tried for war crimes.

Veteran war correspondent Terry Lloyd, 50, who worked for British television company ITN, was killed in March 2003 in southern Iraq as he reported from the front line during the first few days of the U.S.-led invasion.

"He was fired on by American soldiers as a minibus carried wounded people away," Coroner Andrew Walker said at the conclusion of the inquest, which U.S. soldiers declined to attend.

"I have no doubt it was an unlawful act of fire on the minibus," Walker added.

He said he intended to write to the Attorney General -- the government's top lawyer -- and the Director of Public Prosecutions in an effort to bring those responsible for Lloyd's death before a British court.

Louis Charalambous, the Lloyd family's lawyer, said those responsible for his death should be brought to trial for what he termed "a very serious war crime."

"It was a despicable, deliberate, vengeful act," he added.

He said the unlawful killing verdict had been "inescapable" and had come about because "U.S. forces appear to have allowed their soldiers to behave like trigger-happy cowboys." ...

October 12, 2006 | Thursday: 155 Iraqis, 2 Americans Killed; 66 Injured Across Iraq | Updated 7:40 p.m. EDT, Oct. 12, 2006

Today in Iraq, one American army contractor was reported to have died and two others were injured in a roadside bomb attack. U.S. military authorities are also reporting that one soldier was killed and two injured in Kirkuk, another died from wounds sustained ten days ago. British authorities are reporting that a British soldier is recovering from injuries. In other attacks, at least 155 Iraqis died and 61 were injured. Of note was a raid on a television station associated with one of the political parties. ...

At least a third and perhaps a half of those killed, various studies of Iraqi casualties have made clear, have been children.

U.S. Military Has Killed 127-238,000 Iraqi Civilians | by DAVE LINDORFF

At least a third and perhaps a half of those killed, various studies of Iraqi casualties have made clear, have been children.

A just released study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, published in the current issue of the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, reports that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has led to the deaths of between 426,000 and 794,000 Iraqis. This is a substantial increase over the 100,000 dead that the same research group found through 2004, based upon a smaller survey, and it represents an astonishing 2.5 percent of the country's total population.

The grim news was widely--though not universally--reported in the U.S. media (my local paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, blacked it out), but few news organizations reported the most disturbing finding of the study, which was that 31 percent of those killed were actually slain by U.S. and "coalition" forces (actually by U.S. forces, since most of the other foreign forces working with the U.S., with the exception of the British, have not played combat roles, and even the British have largely operated in the south where fighting has been much less severe).

That means U.S. forces have, since the March 19, 2003 invasion, killed between 132,000 and 246,000 Iraqis. It should be recalled that the Pentagon has estimated that the insurgency numbers perhaps 20-40,000 individuals, and they have only succeeded in killing a fraction of them. Assuming generously that the military has succeeded in killing maybe a quarter of the enemy fighters, that would be 10,000 people at most, leaving the U.S. civilian death toll at 122,000-236,000. The Christian Science Monitor, no radical rag, once did a survey and found that U.S. forces were killing civilians in Iraq at a rate of 30 for every enemy fighter slain. At that rate, it would appear, if the peer-reviewed Lancet study is correct, that the U.S. invasion and occupation forces have killed between 127,000 and 238,000 civilians. At least a third and perhaps a half of those killed, various studies of Iraqi casualties have made clear, have been children. ...

194 Killed, 34 Injured in Tuesday Iraq Violence

194 Killed, 34 Injured in Tuesday Iraq Violence October 10, 2006 | Updated 5:30 p.m. EDT, Oct. 10, 2006

Violence in Iraq continued Monday into Tuesday, leaving at least 194 dead and 34 injured. Included in the totals are the death of an American GI and a British security worker. One U.S. soldier was also injured. Also, a mass kidnapping of 11 worshippers occurred in the capital.

An American soldier succumbed to wounds received from an explosive device in Tikrit. The family of a second soldier announced that their son had been wounded Saturday near Balad when a roadside bomb blasted his vehicle. ...

'Tragic day' claims eight US soldiers in Baghdad

'Tragic day' claims eight US soldiers in Baghdad | by Paul Schemm Tue Oct 3, 9:34 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - At least 17 US soldiers have been killed around Iraq since Saturday, including eight in a single day in Baghdad, the US military announced, saying the toll had brought "a tragic day". ...

Bloody Day in Iraq Leaves 263 Dead

October 3, 2006 | Bloody Day in Iraq Leaves 263 Dead | Updated at 11:30 a.m. EDT, Oct. 3, 2006

In the last day, the body count in Iraq exploded as at least 263 were killed or found dead; 30 of those were insurgents killed in Ramadi. Tensions are particularly high due to two mass kidnappings that occurred in Baghdad. At least 16 of a total of 40 kidnap victims are still missing. Roadside bombs, mortars and simple shootings took many lives, while stray fire or mortars took the lives of several children. 45 other people were reportedly injured in those or similar attacks. Experts have noted that in previous years violence has increased during Ramadan; this year is no exception. The US government today also released the names of two Iowa National Guard soldiers killed on Saturday. Over the weekend a Marine died in a vehicle accident unrelated to fighting. Another US soldier died on Monday, bringing the total of US dead to 4. One British soldier was also killed. ..

Bloody Day in Iraq Leaves 150 Dead

October 2, 2006 | Bloody Day in Iraq Leaves 150 Dead

In the last day, the body count in Iraq exploded as at least 150 were killed or found dead, and 16 kidnapped with their fates unknown. Tensions are particularly high due to two mass kidnappings that occurred in Baghdad. Roadside bombs, mortars and simple shootings took many lives, while stray fire or mortars took the lives of several children. 45 other people were reportedly injured in those or similar attacks. Experts have noted that in previous years violence has increased during Ramadan; this year is no exception. The US government today also released the names of two Iowa National Guard soldiers killed on Saturday.

At least 118 were killed in Baghdad alone, including one intelligence officer and Faris Khalil, a colonel in the Interior Ministry. At least thirteen more bodies were found throughout Baghdad on Monday, adding to the fifty that were found overnight Sunday. They were shot to death and bore signs of torture. ...

'Record' Iraq civilian deaths ... 1,089 deaths, 42% increase

'Record' Iraq civilian deaths | 01/10/2006 21:08 - (SA)

Baghdad - The number of Iraqi civilians killed in violence may have jumped to a record high in September, data from the Iraqi government indicated on Sunday.

Partial statistics compiled by the health ministry and issued by the interior ministry put civilian deaths last month at 1 089, a 42% increase from 769 in August and more than the previous record in this series of data - 1 065 in July.

Though apparently incomplete, the data has previously given early indications of trends later borne out by other estimates - notably a sharp increase in killings after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February and a decline in the number of deaths at the start of a major military operation in Baghdad in August.

The United Nations - which adds numbers on hospital deaths from the health ministry to the numbers of unidentified bodies in the Baghdad morgue - has said 6 599 Iraqis were killed in July and August, 700 more than in the previous two months. ...

40 Tortured Bodies Found in Baghdad ...

40 Tortured Bodies Found in Baghdad | Sep 28, 6:27 AM (ET)

(AP) A U.S. soldier, right, and Iraqi police officers examine the wreckage of a car bomb in Kirkuk,...
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The bodies of 40 men who were shot and had their hands and feet bound have been found in the capital over the past 24 hours, police said Thursday.

All the victims showed signs of torture, police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud said. They were dumped in several neighborhoods in both eastern and western Baghdad, he said.

The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, on Wednesday said murders and executions are currently the main cause of civilian deaths in Baghdad.

Much of the violence has been attributed to death squads, many of which are thought to be offshoots of mainly Shiite militias.

Also Thursday, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured in suicide car bombing in part of Baghdad where American and Iraqi troops had just conducted a security sweep. ...

official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total.

What Dropoff? August Death Total in Baghdad Morgue Triples

We took an interesting phone call today from an official at the Baghdad morgue. We get these calls every day – a daily tally of the violence. But this one was particularly sobering.

It turns out the official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total. Now, we’re depressingly used to hearing about deaths here, so much so that the numbers can be numbing. But this means that a much-publicized drop-off in violence in August – heralded by both the Iraqi government and the US military as a sign that a new security effort in Baghdad was working -- apparently didn’t exist.
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These latest numbers add substance to fears Together Forward creates a whack-a-mole effect: that is, secure one area and the violence will pop up somewhere else. Violent deaths now appear roughly in line with the earlier trend: 1855 in July and 1595 in June. Officials at the Baghdad morgue have no good explanation for the dramatically revised number. We’ll see what the U.S. military has to say. ...

“The insurgency has gotten worse by almost all measures, with insurgent attacks at historically high levels,”

Insurgent Bombs Directed at G.I.’s Increase in Iraq | This article is by Michael R. Gordon, Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 — The number of roadside bombs planted in Iraq rose in July to the highest monthly total of the war, offering more evidence that the anti-American insurgency has continued to strengthen despite the killing of the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Along with a sharp increase in sectarian attacks, the number of daily strikes against American and Iraqi security forces has doubled since January. The deadliest means of attack, roadside bombs, made up much of that increase. In July, of 2,625 explosive devices, 1,666 exploded and 959 were discovered before they went off. In January, 1,454 bombs exploded or were found.

The bomb statistics — compiled by American military authorities in Baghdad and made available at the request of The New York Times — are part of a growing body of data and intelligence analysis about the violence in Iraq that has produced somber public assessments from military commanders, administration officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“The insurgency has gotten worse by almost all measures, with insurgent attacks at historically high levels,” said a senior Defense Department official who agreed to discuss the issue only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for attribution. “The insurgency has more public support and is demonstrably more capable in numbers of people active and in its ability to direct violence than at any point in time.” ...

July: Iraq's deadliest month

July: Iraq's deadliest month: "July: Iraq's deadliest month | 09/08/2006 22:15 - (SA)

Baghdad - At least 1 800 people were killed across Iraq in terror attacks and other violence during July, said authorities on Wednesday.

The record number of people were killed by terrorist acts, violence by sectarian death squads and criminal gangs.

A hospital source said on Wednesday that six Iraqis were killed and 17 wounded after a residential building collapsed. It was blown up in central Baquba, 60km north-east of Baghdad. ...

Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June

Excite News - Iraq Civilian Toll Spikes to Nearly 6,000: "Jul 18, 7:13 PM (ET) | By NICK WADHAMS"

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq describes a wave of lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, torture and intimidation.

Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said. Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it said.

"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N. said in a note accompanying the report.

In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in violence in Iraq. In the worst attacks, fifty-three perished in a suicide bombing Tuesday in Kufa, and 50 were slain Monday in a market in Mahmoudiya. ...

Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June

Excite News - Iraq Civilian Toll Spikes to Nearly 6,000: "Jul 18, 7:13 PM (ET) | By NICK WADHAMS"

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq describes a wave of lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, torture and intimidation.

Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said. Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it said.

"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N. said in a note accompanying the report.

In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in violence in Iraq. In the worst attacks, fifty-three perished in a suicide bombing Tuesday in Kufa, and 50 were slain Monday in a market in Mahmoudiya. ...

Soldier Who Killed Handcuffed Iraqi Is Freed

Dayton Paper: Soldier Who Killed Handcuffed Iraqi Is Freed: " Handcuffed Iraqi Is Freed | By E&P Staff | Published: June 25, 2006 12:30 AM ET

NEW YORK An American soldier convicted in the fatal shooting of a handcuffed Iraqi cow herder in 2004 was freed from a military prison in Oklahoma on Friday, more than a year before his sentence was up, the Dayton Daily News reported today.

Army Spec. Edward Richmond Jr., 22, of Gonzales, La., was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced in August 2004 to three years in prison for the April 28, 2004, shooting death of Muhamad Husain Kadir in the village of Taal Al Jal, which is about 40 miles southwest of Kirkuk." ...

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "June 03, 2006 | From Tim Reid in Washington and Ned Parker in Baghdad

PRESIDENT BUSH faced a growing crisis over the conduct of American troops in Iraq yesterday after it emerged that at least three alleged atrocities were being investigated.

With US commanders still struggling to contain the fallout from the alleged al-Haditha massacre, the US military was faced with claims that American soldiers rounded up and shot 11 unarmed civilians, including five children — one only six months old — and four women, in the town of Ishaqi in March.

It also emerged that murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges are likely to be brought imminently against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman for killing an Iraqi civilian near Baghdad on April 26. They are being held in solitary confinement at Camp Pendelton Marine Corps base in California.

The Iraqi civilian that they killed was allegedly dragged from his home and shot. The troops are alleged to have planted a shovel and an AK-47 rifle next to his body to make it appear as if he was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb. ...

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "June 03, 2006 | From Tim Reid in Washington and Ned Parker in Baghdad

PRESIDENT BUSH faced a growing crisis over the conduct of American troops in Iraq yesterday after it emerged that at least three alleged atrocities were being investigated.

With US commanders still struggling to contain the fallout from the alleged al-Haditha massacre, the US military was faced with claims that American soldiers rounded up and shot 11 unarmed civilians, including five children — one only six months old — and four women, in the town of Ishaqi in March.

It also emerged that murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges are likely to be brought imminently against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman for killing an Iraqi civilian near Baghdad on April 26. They are being held in solitary confinement at Camp Pendelton Marine Corps base in California.

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online

Third claim of atrocity rocks US servicemen - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "June 03, 2006 | From Tim Reid in Washington and Ned Parker in Baghdad

PRESIDENT BUSH faced a growing crisis over the conduct of American troops in Iraq yesterday after it emerged that at least three alleged atrocities were being investigated.

With US commanders still struggling to contain the fallout from the alleged al-Haditha massacre, the US military was faced with claims that American soldiers rounded up and shot 11 unarmed civilians, including five children — one only six months old — and four women, in the town of Ishaqi in March.

It also emerged that murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges are likely to be brought imminently against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman for killing an Iraqi civilian near Baghdad on April 26. They are being held in solitary confinement at Camp Pendelton Marine Corps base in California.

The Iraqi civilian that they killed was allegedly dragged from his home and shot. The troops are alleged to have planted a shovel and an AK-47 rifle next to his body to make it appear as if he was an insurgent burying a roadside bomb. ...

ABC News: Victim's Brother Speaks: New Evidence Undermines U.S. Iraq Claims

ABC News: Victim's Brother Speaks: New Evidence Undermines U.S. Iraq Claims:

June 5, 2006 — New evidence may suggest cover-ups in two separate incidents at the center of a simmering scandal over Iraqi civilian deaths at the hands of American forces.

Iraqi anger is percolating over the incidents, and over an investigation that cleared U.S. forces in a third case.

A brother of a victim, Hashim Ibrahim Awad Abass, in Al Hamadania, Iraq, told ABC News today that Marines killed his brother needlessly.

According to the victim's brother, Marines came to his family's village at 2 a.m. on April 25 and first raided a home, where they discovered a shovel and an AK-47. They then went to his brother's house, dragged him into the street, arrested him and took him away. A little while later, Abass' brother heard gunfire outside the village.

Waking up at the crack of dawn, he rushed to the police department to report his brother missing. Abass told ABC News the police informed him that a body had been dropped off earlier by the Americans and that he should go and have a look. It was his brother, he said.

Later that day, Marines came to the family home and dropped off the incident report.

ABC News obtained a copy of the death report, which is written in Arabic on one side and English on the other. "We spotted a man digging on the side of the road from our ambush site," reads the statement. "I made the call and engaged. He was pronounced dead at the scene with only a shovel and AK-47," according to the statement.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins, with another Marine acting as a witness, signed the death report.

Eight Marines could face murder charges in the death of Abass, and other charges for possibly attempting to cover up the killing.

Residents told ABC News over the weekend that a Marine sergeant had lied on an official report about the death of a civilian, saying the man appeared to be planting a bomb. But several Marines have confessed to dragging the man from his house, shooting him and putting a shovel and weapon next to his body. ...

Killing of Iraqi may have been 'premeditated' - [by marines]

CNN.com - Source: Killing of Iraqi may have been 'premeditated' - Jun 6, 2006: "From Jamie McIntyre | CNN | Tuesday, June 6, 2006; Posted: 10:40 a.m. EDT (14:40 GMT)"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Navy investigators have evidence that U.S. Marines may have committed "premeditated" murder in the April shooting death of an unarmed Iraqi man in Hamdaniya, a military officer close to the inquiry told CNN.

The incident is unrelated to a criminal investigation into the alleged massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November.

In the Hamdaniya incident, some of the Marines in pretrial confinement have admitted the circumstances of the man's death were staged, said the officer.

Their statements form part of the evidence suggesting Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, murdered the man, the source said.

"They went after someone, not necessarily this person, but they set out to get someone," the officer told CNN, referring to the Marines now under investigation.

The officer spoke to CNN under the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the case publicly. ...

Envoy accuses US of murder

Envoy accuses US of murder: "Envoy accuses US of murder | By AFP |

05/31/06 'Herald Sun' -- -- IRAQ'S new ambassador to the US said yesterday US forces cold-bloodedly shot and killed his cousin last year in Haditha.

It is the same town where marines are alleged to have gone on a rampage, killing 24 civilians.
Samir Shakir al-Sumaidaie's accusations -- aired just hours after President George Bush welcomed him at the White House -- came as the US military faced growing pressure to complete its investigation into the Haditha deaths.

Ambassador Samir al-Sumaidaie said his relative was shot dead five months before the November killing of 24 civilians.

The ambassador said Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, a bookish 21-year-old engineering student, was killed after opening the door of the family house to US marines on June 25.

'I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe he was killed unnecessarily,' Mr al-Sumaidaie said.

'The marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them. His mother, his siblings were there.

'He let them into the bedroom of his father, and there he was shot.' " ...

US troops shot 3 Afghans in crowd: police chief - PakTribune

US troops shot 3 Afghans in crowd: police chief - PakTribune: "Friday June 02, 2006 (0023 PST)

KABUL: U.S. troops fired into a crowd of hundreds of stone-throwing rioters, killing at least three Afghans, as their convoy left the scene of an accident that triggered Monday’s anti-American riots, Kabul’s chief of highway police said.

General Amanullah Gozar told Reuters on Thursday he had witnessed the entire incident, from the point when a U.S. military truck ran out of control down a hill, crashing into vehicles and killing at least five people, to the clashes afterwards, when U.S. troops opened fire.

"As a result of their firing, one young boy and two other people were killed," Gozar said.

The U.S. military says small arms fire was heard coming from the crowd, and the crowd overpowered a police line formed to protect the convoy as they tended to injured and collected the damaged vehicle before withdrawing.

"Our soldiers thought they were being fired on from the crowd and they fired their weapons in self defense," said Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, a spokeswoman at the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Kabul. She said an investigation was still in its early stages. ...

U.S. Conducts Three More Probes Into Military's Conduct in Iraq

U.S. Conducts Three More Probes Into Military's Conduct in Iraq: "By Alex Morales

06/01/06 -- (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. military, facing allegations that Marines killed civilians in November in western Iraq, is conducting at least three more probes into the conduct of its forces in Iraq, spokesman Major-General William Caldwell said.

The military began a criminal investigation into the Nov. 19 deaths of 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha, west of Baghdad, following a March 27 report by Time Magazine that Marines killed unarmed Iraqis.

``There are three or four at least at this time,'' Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad in response to a question about how many other such incidents were under investigation. Caldwell didn't have any details of those probes, and didn't know their status, beyond that they're in ``the first stages,'' he told a news conference carried live on the Pentagon Web site. "