US military apologizes to Shiite muslims
( 2003-08-15 11:14) (Agencies)
The U.S. military apologized to the people of a Baghdad neighborhood Thursday for an incident in which a man was killed after a Black Hawk helicopter blew down an Islamic banner.
In the southern city of Basra, a bomb killed one British soldier and wounded three others, British military spokesman Capt. Hisham Halawi said. It was the first British combat death in nearly two months.
On Wednesday, American forces fired into a crowd of 3,000 demonstrators in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim slum, after a man shot a rocket-propelled grenade at the soldiers. The shooter was killed and four bystanders were wounded.
"Our intent is not to alienate the Shiite people," said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in Iraq.
"Apparently, the helicopter blew down the flag or somehow the flag was taken down, and we are taking steps to ensure that doesn't happen again," he said, answering a barrage of reporters' questions about why the Black Hawk was hovering above the communications tower.
"There is no policy on our part to fly helicopters to communication towers to take down flags," Sanchez said, insisting the banner was mistakenly blown down by the force of the helicopter blades.
Some Sadr City residents seemed calmed by the U.S. apology.
"I think that this minor incident and misunderstanding is over now. Most of the people are accepting the apology. We will not forget that it was the U.S. soldiers who liberated us from Saddam (Hussein)," said Abid Ali, an auto repair shop owner.
No American soldiers or helicopters were seen patrolling Thursday in Sadr City, where another U.S. apology — in English — was distributed in writing.
"What occurred was a mistake and was not directed against the people of Sadr City," said the statement signed by Lt. Col. Christopher K. Hoffman of the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. "I am personally investigating this incident and will punish those that are responsible."
Most Iraqi Shiites welcomed the ouster of Saddam, who brutally put down a Shiite uprising after the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam's minority Sunni Muslim Baath Party oppressed the Shiite majority throughout his regime.
At his weekly news conference, Sanchez also sought to emphasize that American forces were changing tactics while not altering U.S. goals of wiping out guerrilla resistance to the U.S.-led occupation.
"The conduct of our operations is to take into consideration the Iraqi culture and sensitivities, and we want to be precise in our application of combat power. We are going to continue to be aggressive, we have to be aggressive. We're fighting a low intensity conflict here," Sanchez said.
The British casualties Thursday were all army medics traveling in an ambulance on the outskirts of Basra, where residents rioted last weekend to protest fuel shortages and power cuts.
Eight Britons have been killed in combat since May 1, when President Bush declared major combat over in Iraq. In the same period, 60 American soldiers have died in attacks.
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