U.S. military says Iraqi civilians fired on troops

BAGHDAD – Security guards supposedly allied with U.S. forces have fired on American troops twice in the last two weeks, a U.S. military spokesman said today amid allegations that civilians were being killed by errant gunfire.

Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said it was not known why the Iraqis, members of the Sons of Iraq civilian security corps, had shot at U.S. troops.

His comments came a day after SOI fighters, who are civilians voluntarily guarding their towns and neighborhoods, abandoned their posts in a volatile area south of Baghdad to protest the deaths of three guards killed Friday by U.S. forces.

Smith told a news conference that the three had been firing on a U.S. helicopter when the aircraft returned fire.

He also confirmed that some Sons of Iraq forces were among six Iraqis killed in a predawn gun battle Thursday in a northern Iraqi village.

In that case too, Smith said, Americans opened fire after being shot at.

“What’s unknown to us is precisely what they thought they were shooting at,” he said of the Sons of Iraq forces.

Smith said he did not believe that entire groups of the pro-U.S. forces had been taken over by insurgents but said some units clearly had infiltrators.

“There may in fact be Al Qaeda amongst” some units, Smith said, adding that investigations were ongoing to determine the backgrounds of the guards who had died.

The incidents have highlighted one of the potential problems with the grass-roots security program, which has grown to include about 80,000 Iraqi men and women nationwide. The corps is credited with bringing down violence in much of the country, but its members are not in uniform and often patrol in volatile areas plagued with insurgents.

Smith said the guards have reflective vests they are supposed to wear and that each unit is assigned a specific area to patrol. If they wear their uniforms and remain in their areas of operation, the chances of them being mistaken for insurgents are greatly reduced, he said.

Some SOI leaders, though, have accused the Americans of intentionally targeting them or of not being careful enough to avoid accidental killings.

Also today, a woman with explosives hidden beneath her traditional abaya blew herself up in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood. Iraqi police said at least three people were killed, but the U.S. military quoted Iraqi army officials as saying only the woman died.

According to a military statement, Iraqi soldiers noticed that the woman, who looked like a beggar, appeared out of place in the upscale neighborhood. When soldiers told her to stop and raise her hands, they noticed that she was grasping wires in one hand.

According to the statement, the troops opened fire, and the woman staggered backward into a shop, where the detonation occurred.

tina.susman@latimes.com

A special correspondent in Baghdad contributed to this report.