BAGHDAD – – The U.S. military acknowledged that it killed 15 civilians and wounded four others in an operation Thursday targeting what it called senior leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a region northwest of Baghdad. The statement said 19 suspected insurgents also were killed.
The military said air and ground forces responded to an intelligence report that the insurgent leaders were meeting and killed four suspected militants. A second assault was launched where it was believed militants had fled, killing six women and nine children, as well as 15 suspected militants, a U.S. military statement said.
Late Thursday, a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into a cafe in eastern Baghdad, killing five people and injuring 25 others. Earlier in the day, a truck bomb targeted a market near Kirkuk, killing seven and injuring 50.
In Washington, families of three victims of a Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Blackwater USA, the security company implicated in the shooting.
The suit accuses the contractor of negligence in its employment and training practices, saying Blackwater fostered “a culture of lawlessness among its employees, encouraging them to act in the company’s financial interests at the expense of human life.”
The lawsuit, believed to be the first filed in connection with the incident, did not specify a damages amount.
A report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene says Blackwater guards shot at the civilians as they tried to drive away and found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons, The Washington Post reported.
The report – based upon observations at the scene, eyewitness interviews and discussions with Iraqi police – concluded that there was “no enemy activity involved” and described the shootings as a “criminal event.”
