U.S. Troops Kill at Least 7 Civilians (suicidal psywar tactic for suicide bomber confusion?)

NEAR KARBALA, Iraq - U.S. troops shot and killed at least seven Iraqi civilians — some of them children — in a vehicle at checkpoint Monday in southern Iraq (news - web sites) when the driver did not stop as ordered, U.S. Central Command said.

The soldiers involved were from the 3rd Infantry Division, the same unit that lost four soldiers Saturday at another checkpoint when an Iraqi soldier dressed as a civilian detonated a car bomb.

On Monday, the vehicle approached the U.S. Army checkpoint at about 4:30 p.m. Soldiers motioned for the driver to stop but were ignored, the Central Command said. They fired warning shots, which also were ignored, the U.S. military said.

Troops then shot into the vehicle's engine, but the driver continued toward the checkpoint. As a last resort, the military statement said, soldiers fired into the passenger compartment.

Two other civilians were wounded at the checkpoint on a highway near Karbala, according to a Pentagon (news - web sites) official and Central Command. The military is investigating, the statement said.

The statement said a total of 13 women and children were in the van. But The Washington Post, whose reporter is embedded with the 3rd Infantry, said 15 passengers were in the van and 10 were killed, five of them children who appeared to be younger than age 5. One of the wounded was a man not expected to live, the Post reported on its Web site.

The newspaper described the vehicle as a four-wheel-drive Toyota crammed with the Iraqis' personal belongings.

Central Command said initial reports indicated the soldiers followed the rules of engagement to protect themselves. "In light of recent terrorist attacks by the Iraqi regime, the soldiers exercised considerable restraint to avoid the unnecessary loss of life," the statement said.

The Post report, however, quoted a 3rd Infantry Division captain as saying the checkpoint crew did not fire warning shots quickly enough.

The Post describes a captain watching the incident over binoculars and ordering the soldiers by radio to fire a warning shot first and then shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into the vehicle's radiator. When the vehicle kept coming, the captain ordered the soldiers to "stop him!"

About a dozen shots of 25mm cannon fire were heard from one or more of the platoon's Bradleys, the Post said.

The captain then shouted over the radio at the platoon leader, "You just expletive killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!" according to the Post.

"It was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, and I hope I never see it again," Sgt. Mario Manzano, 26, an Army medic with Bravo Company of the division's 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, told the Post.

The newspaper also described the 3rd Infantry Battalion as being jittery because of the fellow soldiers killed last week by the suicide bombing at a similar checkpoint 20 miles to the south.

U.S. medics evacuated survivors of Monday's shooting to U.S. lines south of Karbala, according to the Post. One woman was unhurt. Another, who had superficial head wounds, was flown by helicopter to a U.S. field hospital when it was learned she was pregnant, the Post said. U.S. troops gave three survivors permission to return to the vehicle and recover the bodies of their loved ones, the newspaper said.

Medics gave the group 10 body bags, the newspaper reported, and U.S. officials offered an unspecified amount of money to compensate them.

A top-ranking Pentagon official, interviewed Monday night on PBS television, said the troops at the checkpoint "absolutely did the right thing."

"They tried to warn the vehicle to stop, it did not stop," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said on "The New Hour with Jim Leherer." "And it was unusual that that vehicle would be full of only women and that the driver was a woman. So we need to find out why it was that they were acting the way they did."

Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

This may be an Iraqi psywar-bluff tactic in this ongoing Battle of the Roadblocks. Now it'll be hard for US troops to stop suicide bombers, especially if they have kids in the car - which they may. And then the US takes a big hit in the world press for shooting women and kids.

Must have been pretty hard on the troops on the scene, too. That's not something most people would want to remember.

The solution to counter this problem may be with technology. Maybe something like an aircraft arresting net (see http://www.uotila.com/aircraftarresting/indexaircraftarresting.htm), but tailored for a roadblock, could immobilize the car at a safe distance from the roadblock without hurting the occupants.

Then if they blow themselves up, well, the US didn't do it. And if they go off the road to bypass the arresting net, they get shot regardless.

Naw - can't even handle DU on a good day. The driver clearly wanted this outcome and it succeeded; I'm afraid now we'll lose more troops who hesitate to shoot to suiciders, and it'll make everybody nuts. I hope our guys will use the technical fix.

They tried to warn the vehicle to stop, it did not stop," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace said on "The New Hour with Jim Leherer." "And it was unusual that that vehicle would be full of only women and that the driver was a woman. So we need to find out why it was that they were acting the way they did."

This vehicle was sent to be destoyed, It was a set up to make the US troops look bad and to make them hesitate and die the next time.

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