U.S. Soldiers Mistakenly Kill 8 Iraqi Officers in Volatile City

U.S. soldiers killed nine people Friday, including eight Iraqi law enforcement officers, in the worst “friendly fire” incident since the end of major combat operations, further inflaming anti-American sentiment in one of the most tense corners of Iraq.

The pre-dawn shooting erupted as the Iraqis were returning to the city after an unsuccessful pursuit of suspected robbers, said an officer who survived. American troops apparently thought they were threatened and opened fire.

A Jordanian working at a nearby hospital also was killed, local authorities said. Eight people were wounded.

The deaths enraged residents and ignited a wave of wild anti-American rumors, with some people claiming that U.S. forces had lured the policemen into a trap. And instead of furthering the goal of turning more law enforcement over to Iraqis, the incident undermined American efforts to overcome the violence aimed at U.S. troops in the “Sunni Triangle” west and north of Baghdad, a center of support for ousted President Saddam Hussein.

“This pushes people to join the resistance,” said Abdula Abdul Janabi, imam at the Saud ibn abi Wakas mosque in Fallouja. “This makes people’s hearts boil with fire.”

At least two other gun battles took place Friday. A pre-dawn raid by U.S. troops in a residential area of Ramadi, about an hour’s drive west of Fallouja, turned into a firefight that left two U.S. soldiers dead and seven wounded. The deaths brought American fatalities in the conflict to 290. Residents told reporters that three Iraqis also were killed. In central Baghdad, police engaged in a shootout with suspected thieves.

Attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces are averaging about 15 a day, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, said this week.

Continued instability and the slow pace of reconstruction are causing increasing concern in Washington. Influential Capitol Hill Republicans are urging the Bush administration to shift responsibility for reconstruction in Iraq from the Defense Department to the State Department. Iraqis said responsibility should be given to them instead.

“The most important thing is to change the wrong policies that are leading Iraq to destruction,” said Abdelaziz Hakim, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and the brother of a recently assassinated Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Hakim.

“The coalition forces should respond to the demands of the nation that the Iraqis themselves should shoulder security responsibilities,” he said. “Otherwise, Iraq will become a fertile ground of disgusting terrorism and the occupying forces will be the cause for it to spread in the country.”

The shootings -- which came after a spate of recent car bombings and President Bush’s acknowledgment to the nation that American engagement in Iraq will be lengthy, expensive and painful -- were the latest serious setback for U.S. efforts in Iraq.

The law officers killed by U.S. troops appeared to be part of a force formed by Fallouja leaders to take responsibility for their own security and soothe friction with the Americans. Fallouja was the site of the first major confrontation between U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians after the fall of Hussein, and tensions in the city have been high ever since.

Fallouja Mayor Taha Badawi Hamid said the deaths were a barrier to “bridge building” between the Iraqis and the Americans.

“These incidents make it worse,” he said.

In a frustrated tone, he said that a similar event had occurred two days earlier when a police officer was killed and another wounded on a routine patrol. He said in that case the Americans had apologized and paid compensation.

Sanchez said in an interview that he was still pulling together the facts of the “tragic” incident, and that investigators would try “to figure out where errors may have occurred.”

He said the United States was likely to make payments to the families of the victims.

“I’m pretty confident that we’ll make sure that we’ve done the right thing for those families,” he said.

Abdul-Jalil Murrawi, an officer injured in the incident, said from his hospital bed that the officers had been pursuing suspected robbers driving a BMW. The suspects escaped and the officers headed back to town in two marked police vehicles and an unmarked pickup truck, he said.

His doctor, Dhia Mahmood Jumaily, later said that Murrawi told him “the American soldiers opened fire without any cause or any warnings.”

U.S. forces shot up two of the vehicles as they passed in front of a Jordanian-run hospital slightly more than a mile from Fallouja. The roadside was littered with dozens of spent 40-millimeter cartridges of the type used in guns on U.S. military vehicles. Law enforcement sources said the wounded were six Iraqi police and two security force officers.

The U.S. military in Fallouja refused to speak to reporters about the incident. When a Times reporter went to the main base, a Capt. Mitchell, who described himself as “the liaison to the Iraqis” but did not identify himself further, ordered the reporter to leave.

Fallouja’s mayor said the Americans told him that they thought they were being fired on.

“They said, ‘One of our troops was shot in the leg,’ ” he said.

Jumaily, the doctor, said he went to the scene after four injured officers were received at the hospital. Murrawi and another injured man were still at the site when he arrived, he said.

“There were eight others dead, with terrible injuries,” the doctor said. “Even the brain tissue was out of the skull and some had their chests open.... While I was giving treatment for these two injured people, I started to hear explosions and gunfire. I cannot tell where the shooting was coming from. My ambulance was in the middle.”

Iraqis outside the hospital said there were two phases to the incident, first the U.S. firing on the security and police vehicles, and then a couple of hours later, shooting at the residential building of the hospital. A concrete-block residence at the hospital could be seen with holes blasted in its walls and part of the exterior blackened by smoke.

One possible explanation was that Jordanian security guards thought they were under attack and opened fire, prompting return fire from the Americans.

Iraqi police Lt. Ayad Abid, speaking with reporters outside the mayor’s office, said eight Iraqis and one Jordanian died in the incident.

Fallouja law enforcement has little coordination with U.S. forces, Abid said. “It is a mistake by the American troops,” he said. “They should have contacted the Iraqi police before opening fire.” The mayor said he tried to call the U.S. military on his satellite phone as soon as he heard that there were wounded but he got no answer.

Rahim Abdul Murrawi, brother of the injured officer, said Abdul-Jalil had been planning to resign his job “today or tomorrow” because he had begun to receive threats. “People were saying, ‘You are working with the Americans; if you keep working with them you will be a collaborator,’ ” he said.

The police are now largely independent of the American military, especially in Fallouja and other cities in central Iraq where anti-American sentiment is strong. But because the officers worked with them early on, they are still seen as a link to the occupation forces.

Like many people in Fallouja who had heard about the incident, Rahim Abdul Murrawi mixed information he had heard from the police and the mayor with the rumors that coursed through the streets.

According to one rumor, the Americans approached the victims and shot them with small arms to make sure they were dead. Another rumor was that the Americans wanted to kill police to cause trouble and create an excuse to return to the city with greater force.

“We are sure this is a game done by the Americans,” said Imad Jasin Isawi. “This BMW belongs to the Americans, and they planned this ambush.”

Abid, the police lieutenant, said wild rumors make officers’ jobs harder.

“They are very clever in spreading rumors,” he said of anti-U.S. insurgents. “They don’t want things to calm down. Of course they have a bad effect on our work. Many people believe such rumors and allegations.”

Janabi, the imam, said that two military commanders came to see him Thursday to request his help in rooting out resistance to the occupation forces.

Janabi said the commanders asked him, “What is the reason for the resistance?”

“I said, ‘You are the reason.’ ”

He is also afraid to help them. “I told them, ‘I cannot help you because if I do, the next day I will be shot dead.’ ”

Looking back at the last five months, during which more than 20 Fallouja residents have been killed by American fire, Janabi indicated that he was genuinely puzzled about why such incidents kept occurring.

“The Americans must be one of two things: Either they are stupid and behave badly, or they came here to massacre the people. In both cases they are the losers,” he said.

Although no injuries were reported in the Baghdad gun battle, it also contributed to the sense of insecurity. The fight between would-be thieves and about 30 Iraqi police officers erupted around a hotel housing U.S. advisors and officials of the new Iraqi Governing Council.

“There was continuous gunfire for 15 to 30 minutes,” said Police Lt. Ahmed Abdul Karim, standing amid spent bullet casings. “The robbers ran into a vacant building and fired at us. We captured two of them and a third one dropped his weapon and escaped.”

Times staff writers Jeffrey Fleishman and John Daniszewski in Baghdad contributed to this report.