An
AFP correspondent at Fallujah Hospital said eight other Iraqis were
wounded, four seriously, after the incident at 10:45 pm (GMT 1845)
outside the town.
The
growing number of civilian casualties, and the military's track record
in investigating them, has triggered alarm among rights groups that
insist ongoing tensions in Iraq should not blunt a commitment to
justice.
"No
one feels safe in Iraq now and not a day goes by without more civilians
being killed or injured by U.S. soldiers or by armed groups amidst total
impunity," Amnesty International said Friday.
"U.S.
forces are facing direct attacks and a serious law and order emergency,
but that cannot be justification for a virtual license to kill,"
said the watchdog in a statement issued in Geneva.
Fred
Abraham, a researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said he
was "uncomfortable with the apparent lack of transparency in the
process" of investigating the deaths.
"It
is clearly so upsetting for the Iraqi public that it's incumbent on them
(the U.S. military) to make public how they conduct their investigations
and to be forthcoming with the results," Abraham told AFP.
 |
|
An
Iraqi civilian shot by U.S. soldiers
|
Amnesty
International took a much tougher line.
"What
is most shocking is that there is no evidence of serious commitment to
carry out independent, thorough and impartial investigations into these
cases," the London-based group said.
The
statement, timed to coincide with a key U.N. debate on Iraq's future,
called on the international community to urgently address the
deteriorating security situation in Iraq.
"It
is unacceptable that the coalition forces appear to continue to use
excessive force on a wide scale, resulting in civilian deaths,"
Amnesty said.
According
to AFP, U.S. officials declined comment.
U.S.
military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel George Krivo said Saturday he had
not seen the report, and Charles Heatley, spokesman for the so-called
Coalition Provisional Authority, said to speak to the military.
Nor
have American officials been much more forthcoming on repeated requests
for the number of U.S. soldiers punished for misconduct since the
occupation of Iraq.
"I'll
have to refer that to our research department," Sergeant Nicole
Thompson, a spokeswoman for the US-led occupation authority, told AFP
Thursday.
The
military did announce Friday that soldiers were facing disciplinary
action for an incident last month when a helicopter tried to remove a
religious flag in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad and
triggered a clash that left an Iraqi dead.
An
e-mail sent to AFP in response to repeated queries on the case said an
inquiry had found the American soldiers involved guilty of "poor
judgment" and had initiated "administrative actions"
against them.
The
August 13 episode sparked angry protests among Shiite Muslims in Sadr
City district and prompted a U.S. apology.
But
American military officials would not say which troops faced punishment
and what sanctions awaited them.
U.S.
officials also apologized for the September 12 deaths of nine Iraqi
security men and a Jordanian hospital guard.
But
an inquiry into the incident found the U.S. troops who opened fire on a
high-speed police chase "acted within the construct of their rules
of engagement."
The
same formulation was used to exonerate U.S. soldiers who killed two
Iraqi policemen and a TV cameraman last month, and two cameramen at the
media-heavy Palestine Hotel that took a shell from a U.S. tank in April.
