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By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: April 26, 2009
BAGHDAD — American troops killed two Iraqis on Sunday during an early morning raid in southern Iraq that set off public protests and drew a pointed complaint from Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that the operation violated a new security agreement between Iraq and the United States.
The American raid in Kut set off protests by local residents.
The raid was not the first violent episode involving American forces to provoke a public dispute since the security agreement took effect in January, but it quickly became the most serious test so far of the agreement’s carefully negotiated provisions.
Mr. Maliki, in a statement read Sunday evening on the state’s television network, Al Iraqiya, criticized the raid as a violation of the agreement and called for the American military to “hand over those responsible for this crime to the courts.”
Under the agreement, Americans can theoretically be charged by Iraqi authorities, but only in extremely rare cases in which they are not “on duty.” The raid nonetheless set the stage for a potentially contentious dispute at a time when American troops are preparing to withdraw.
The operation underscored the confusion and anger stemming from raids against people suspected of being extremists now that the Iraqis are officially in charge of security across the country.
By the end of the day, the raid appeared to have been a mistake in the first place, as six men arrested in the operation by the Americans were released after being questioned in Baghdad. The American commander in the region, Col. Richard M. Francey Jr., joined senior Iraqi officials on Sunday evening at a news conference in Kut, the city south of Baghdad where the raid took place, and apologized.
The American military command in Baghdad said in a statement that it did not retract its position that the operation was aimed at suspected Shiite militants and that it was “fully coordinated and approved by the Iraqi government.”
Regional officials and commanders from the Ministry of Defense provided contradictory accounts on Sunday.
Hundreds of people, including relatives and neighbors of those killed, as well as police officers, gathered near the offices of the provincial council in Kut, the regional capital of Wasit Province, a largely Shiite province bordering Iran. They chanted “No, no to America,” “No, no to occupation” and “No, no to Israel.”
Latif al-Turfa, Wasit’s governor, said that the operation violated the security agreement and added that one of those arrested, a police captain, was “a good person in the province.” A member of Wasit’s provincial council, Alaa Hussein Hachim, denounced the operation as “such an ugly crime.”
The Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, said that two Iraqi Army commanders in the region had been detained and accused of not informing their superiors about the operation.
That suggested that some Iraqi commanders knew of the raid in advance, though it was not immediately clear who authorized it and whether the American troops possessed an arrest warrant, as required under the agreement. The American military declined to answer any questions, referring repeatedly to its initial statement.
According to the American military and witnesses, American troops arrived early Sunday at a house belonging to a local sheik, Ahmed Abdul Sada. The military’s statement said the troops opened fire when “an individual with a weapon came out of the home.”
“Forces assessed him to be hostile, and they engaged the man, killing him,” the American statement said. “During the engagement, a woman in the area moved into the line of fire and was also struck by gunfire.”
A medic treated her at the house, but she died before being evacuated for treatment, the statement said. The woman was Sheik Ahmed’s wife, Azhar, his relatives said. The other person killed was the sheik’s brother Khalid, a policeman.
The American statement said that troops arrested six people, including Sheik Ahmed, suspected of belonging to the Mahdi Army and the Promise Day Brigade, both Shiite militias suspected of carrying out attacks against American and Iraqi forces.
By late afternoon, however, the men returned home. Sheik Ahmed said in an interview on Sunday evening that his wife, in a panic, had picked up a rifle when the Americans burst into their home in the middle of the night.
“If the Americans had only knocked, we would have cooperated,” he said. “Instead they came from four corners.”
He and his brother Ayad said they had been flown by helicopter to a military base in Baghdad and questioned before being released with an apology. “ ‘You are not the people we want,’ ” Ayad Abdul Sada said an American told him.
A delegation of American and Iraqi officers later visited the raided house and the provincial council to express condolences and apologies. “It is really a tragedy, and I express my deep regret and apologies to all the families that lost victims,” Colonel Francey said at the news conference in Kut.
He added that the operation had not been carried out by troops based in Wasit. That, and comments by Iraqi officials, suggested that American Special Operations forces, whose missions are shrouded in secrecy, carried out the raid.
Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kut, Iraq.
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