U.S. mistake kills 9 in Iraq

Nine people were killed and four were injured in an errant U.S. airstrike southeast of Baghdad, the military said Sunday.

One child was among the dead, and two children were among the injured, said U.S. Army Maj. Brad Leighton.

“We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident,” Leighton said. “We mourn the loss of innocent life.”

The news came the same day the military announced that a U.S. soldier was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade Thursday in eastern Baghdad. The identity of the soldier was not released pending notification of next of kin. At least 3,945 American troops have been killed in Iraq since the conflict began in March 2003, according to the independent website icasualties.org.

At least three members of a so-called concerned local citizens group were among the dead in the mistaken airstrike, according to a U.S. military source. The citizens groups are mostly Sunni Arab security forces organized and paid by the U.S. military in hopes that many will eventually be integrated into the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces.

The airstrike comes at a time when members of the groups, typically paid $10 a day, are coming under deadly attacks by Al Qaeda in Iraq and other militants because of their affiliation with the U.S. The volunteers have received significant praise for their role in the improved security in many areas of the country.

The airstrike occurred late Saturday when the military spotted what it believed to be a team of insurgents readying a roadside bomb in a rural area 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, the military source said.

A U.S. aircraft bombed a house that the suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents were believed to have entered. A search later revealed that the bomb site was actually a concerned local citizens checkpoint, the military source said.

Mohammed Ghrairi, the local citizens commander in the area, said a U.S. military colonel immediately visited him to issue an apology. News of the incident was not released to the media, however, until the military was contacted by The Times.

In other news, Iraq’s three-member presidency council said Sunday that it had issued a new law that would allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to return to government.

The law, however, was issued over the objections of Vice President Tariq Hashimi, the Sunni Arab member of the council.

“I don’t want to deliver any sort of challenge to the parliament or challenge to the government or the political entities. At the end of the day, what I need is to amend the law,” Hashimi told The Times.

The other members of the council are President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite.

The legislation approved by parliament last month allows former Baathists to return to state jobs, but also blocks high-ranking members from serving in the security forces, the Foreign Ministry and key leadership posts. The law could allow, by some estimates, about 38,000 low-level party members to regain their jobs. But in theory it could also lead to the dismissal of an estimated 7,000 senior officials who have already been granted waivers to return to work.

Hashimi said, “Behind the scenes, I have commitments from colleagues that we should come up with amendments to the law that will benefit Iraq.”

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, has spoken in support of the legislation and said he did not expect it to purge former Baathists already integrated in the Shiite-dominated security forces.

“We hope that it will not be [a purge of former Baathists], and I think everyone is watching that there will not be,” Petraeus said. “If there is, I think there will be repercussions for the Iraqi government.”

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garrett.therolf@latimes.com