Iraqi soldier killed 2 U.S. troops, military says

An Iraqi soldier suspected of having ties to Sunni insurgents opened fire on U.S. troops during a joint operation, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, military officials said Saturday.

The Dec. 26 incident is one of the few reported instances of an Iraqi soldier turning on U.S. forces.

The Iraqi soldier killed Sgt. Benjamin Portell, 27, of Bakersfield and Capt. Rowdy Inman, 38, of Houston “for reasons that are yet unknown,” the U.S. military said. A civilian interpreter and three other soldiers were wounded in the attack, which occurred while 15 to 20 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were setting up an outpost near the northern city of Mosul.

An Iraqi army official said the shooting was deliberate.

“Suddenly, one of the Iraqi soldiers opened fire intentionally and immediately killed two American soldiers,” said Brig. Gen. Mutaa Khazraji, commander of the Iraqi army’s 2nd Division.

He declined to discuss the soldier’s background, but another brigadier general, Noor Din Hussein, told the Reuters news agency that he was an “insurgent infiltrator.”

“It was not an accident,” Hussein told Reuters. “There is some penetration [by insurgents], and we want to purify the Iraqi army. Our soldiers are good and doing well.”

U.S. military officials said the Iraqi soldier fled but was later caught by Iraqi army personnel. A second Iraqi soldier is also in custody, and the investigation is continuing to determine whether he also fired his weapon.

Maj. Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for the 3rd Army Cavalry Regiment, could not confirm whether the two have ties to insurgents.

“We believe this is an isolated incident,” he said. “Right now, our relationship with Iraqi security forces is as strong as ever. We’re still working together side by side.”

Dangerfield praised Iraqi and U.S. troops for not overreacting at the time of the shooting. “It could have been a lot more chaotic than it was,” he said. “They did a great job of handling the situation.”

For the last four years, the U.S. military has considered training Iraqi troops and rebuilding the country’s army one of its top priorities, with the hope that the Iraqi forces will someday solely handle the nation’s security.

Iraqi soldiers undergo “thorough and very comprehensive screening” to make sure they have no major criminal background or ties to insurgents, Dangerfield said, adding that there was “no indication whatsoever” of a potential problem.

There are no immediate plans to change the screening process, he said. “As I know it, we feel pretty confident in the system we have in place,” Dangerfield said.

In June 2004, two National Guardsmen from California were killed by Iraqi security forces they were helping train. The U.S. military originally attributed the deaths of National Guard Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr., 34, of Tracy and 1st Lt. Andre D. Tyson, 33, of Riverside to an ambush by insurgents.

But preliminary investigation results released in 2006 by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command said the two soldiers had been killed by presumed allies.

Nadia McCaffrey, the mother of one of the slain guardsmen, said she was still awaiting the trial of one of the Iraqi soldiers who killed her son.

“This is not an isolated case,” McCaffrey said. “It has happened before; it will happen again if we don’t look into it and protect the soldiers.”

In violence in Iraq on Saturday, an explosion targeted an Iraqi army patrol in northwest Baghdad, injuring seven. Baghdad police also reported recovering 12 bodies, including five in the Dora neighborhood.

The U.S. military reported that a soldier died Saturday after a bomb exploded near his vehicle in Diyala province. His name was withheld pending notification of family.

Also, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki returned Saturday from London, where he had undergone what he called routine medical exams.

“I give confidence to all my brothers that I am in a very good health situation and will start my work immediately with my brothers the officials and ministers,” Maliki said.

kimi.yoshino@latimes.com

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Special correspondents in Baghdad and Mosul contributed to this report.