Soldiers Kill Iraqi Couple During Raid at a Home

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: January 24, 2009

BAGHDAD — American soldiers fatally shot an Iraqi couple in their home near Kirkuk early Saturday after the wife reached for a pistol hidden under a mattress, American and Iraqi officials said. The couple’s 8-year-old daughter was wounded.

A relative mourned a couple shot by American forces, who said the wife had reached for a gun.

United States troops, using helicopters, raided the family’s house in Hawija, a town in northern Iraq, around 2 a.m. in search of members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi police and witnesses said. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is a homegrown militant group that American intelligence officials say is led by foreigners.

In one room, soldiers saw a woman reaching under a mattress, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting an unidentified United States Army spokesman.

The woman was told several times in Arabic to show her hands, but she refused and was shot, the spokesman said. The American military said soldiers found a pistol under the mattress.

After the woman was shot, her husband, Dhia Hussein Ali al-Tikriti, attacked the soldiers and was shot and killed, the spokesman said, adding that Mr. Tikriti had been suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

The couple’s 8-year-old daughter, Ahlam Dhia, was shot once in the leg and was taken to a hospital. Her injuries were not life-threatening.

“They killed my mother and father right in front of me,” she said. “I was under the blanket. I heard my mom screaming, and I started to cry.”

She described the soldiers as being bearded. American Special Operations troops often wear beards in an effort to fit in with the local population. The United States military would not confirm whether the soldiers were from a Special Operations unit.

Neighbors said that Mr. Tikriti had been an officer in Saddam Hussein’s army. He was arrested by American forces in 2004, held for about a year and then released, said Abu Aya, a cousin.

He said four other children in the house were unharmed.

Elsewhere on Saturday, three Iraqi police officers were killed and 14 other people, including 5 police officers, were wounded when a car bomb exploded in Karma in Anbar Province as an Iraqi police patrol passed.

The area, in western Iraq, has become significantly less violent during the past year and a half, since tribal leaders switched their support from militants to American and Iraqi forces.

Also Saturday, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission said borders and airports would be closed for provincial elections next Saturday. A curfew is to begin Friday evening.

Suadad al-Salhy and Mudhafer al-Husaini contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Kirkuk and Falluja.