BALAD, Iraq -- An attack on Iraqis here by U.S. troops after an American tank patrol was ambushed Friday morning killed seven persons, not 27 as initially reported, U.S. military officials said Saturday, and Iraqi witnesses said five of the victims were not involved in the ambush.
Lt. Col. Andy Fowler, commander of the 7th Cavalry unit that was ambushed with rocket-propelled grenades and a remote-controlled land mine, said a statement issued Friday by U.S. Central Command saying that 27 Iraqis had been killed was based on his "initial estimates." Fowler adjusted the number to "seven confirmed dead."
Two of those killed, Fowler said, were dressed in the black pants and shirts typical of the Fedayeen Saddam, a militia fiercely loyal to former president Saddam Hussein. Witnesses said those two were likely among the assailants who attacked the tank patrol.
The other five victims, according to witnesses and relatives, were an elderly shepherd, his three sons and one son-in-law. A fourth son was wounded, and his family said doctors at the local hospital said he may never walk again. Family members who gathered here today for a funeral for the five said that a U.S. officer apologized for the killings, which occurred in the agricultural lands five miles south of Balad.
Officials with Central Command would not comment on the reported civilian deaths. Fowler said it was "possible" the five were noncombatants but that a military investigation is ongoing.
As U.S. commanders pour troops into areas to search for weapons caches and the former Iraqi government forces blamed for recent ambushes, the killing of civilians could intensify an already tense situation. Anger over such deaths could, said the mayor of Balad, Nabel Mohammad Darwesh, be "used against the Americans." After such incidents, "the people can be manipulated," he said.
The relatives of the dead farmers said they assume the real attackers chose their small village as an ambush point not only to kill U.S. troops but to produce civilian casualties that would stir anti-occupation sentiment.
"We understand this is a mistake -- that in war, these things happen," Saad Hashim Atia, a cousin of the dead men, said as he gathered with a hundred men in three sweltering tents outside their home for an Islamic wake. In a fourth tent, women could be heard wailing and crying as helpers prepared a feast.
"But this is a whole family," Atia said. "Gone. All gone."
He said that his tribe and village hated Hussein and suffered under his rule, and that they support the Americans and want them to stay. But he also sought promises that the farmers' deaths would be investigated by an independent human rights group and that a formal apology would be delivered and some kind of restitution paid to the families by U.S. occupation forces.
