www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1041212,00.html
US killing of eight Iraqi police fuels anger in troubled town Rory McCarthy in Falluja Saturday September 13, 2003 The Guardian The US military reignited tension in one of Iraqs most troubled towns yesterday when its troops mistakenly shot dead eight policemen who were chasing a car full of suspected bandits. American military officials were at a loss last night to explain why their soldiers opened fire with heavy machines guns on the officers, who were in two clearly marked Iraqi police cars in the town of Falluja. Their patrol cars had their sirens on and their warning lights flashing as they chased the suspects through the centre of town early yesterday. As the vehicles passed in front of a US military base American tanks opened fire without warning. The suspect car, a dark BMW believed to be carrying several gunmen, disappeared untouched by the shooting. Police officers described how they pleaded with the soldiers to stop firing as their colleagues died around them. A Jordanian security guard on duty at a Jordanian-funded hospital opposite the US base was also killed. Four other guards outside the hospital were injured and the buildings were seriously damaged by heavy American shelling. In a separate incident in another troubled Sunni town near Falluja, two US troops were killed and seven others were injured during a raid in Ramadi. Many in Falluja are already fiercely critical of the US military occupation, in part because they represent the small Sunni community that prospered under Saddam Hussein and has now lost its influence. Even those who welcomed the fall of the Iraqi dictator lost any sympathy for the US troops after they opened fire on a crowd of unarmed protesters in Falluja in May, killing 18 people and leaving at least 70 injured. At Fallujas main hospital yesterday Abdul Kader Jasim, 30, stood at the bedside of one of his wounded colleagues as he described how the two cars were attacked. The men were part of a uniformed Iraqi protection force working alongside the police with the knowledge and support of the US military. Mr Jasim, a non-commissioned police officer, was driving the first of the two police patrol cars, a blue and white saloon car marked clearly with a police sign. The cars were on a routine patrol when they took a call on their radio at around 130 am telling them to search for the suspect BMW Gunmen in the car had fired at the main police station in the town and drove off into the night. The Americans knew very well that we have patrols on these roads every night, Mr Jasim said. We had our lights flashing and our siren on as we went past the American base. But they put their spotlights on us and then they started shooting us. But they just kept on shooting - at our engines, our tyres, the glass, the doors. Eight policemen in the second car, a pick-up, were killed instantly. These people are asking us to provide security and then they are killing us. The US military refused to discuss the incident and issued a statement saying only that one US soldier and five neutral individuals were injured in an attack near the Jordanian hospital in Falluja. The statement said US troops were attacked by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. Outside the hospital yesterday lay empty shells from heavy machine gun rounds. There were bullet holes in the main building and a two-storey block to one side was badly damaged. By late yesterday no US officer had appeared at the main police station in Falluja to apologise or explain what had happened. Lieutenant Ayad Dulaimi, 25, said policing in Falluja had become increasingly difficult because people associated the police with the US military. Special report Iraq Guardian book The War We Could Not Stop - the real story of the battle for Iraq, published by Guardian Books and Faber.
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