New probe targets Hawai'i troops

By Paul Garwood
Associated Press

TIKRIT, Iraq — The U.S. military is investigating a complaint that soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division (Light), killed four Iraqi civilians early Wednesday.

A group of Iraqis claimed that soldiers of the unit, on a deployment from Schofield Barracks in Hawai'i, shot and killed four people near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Maj. Josslyn Aberle, an Army spokeswoman, said the soldiers were on a mission to capture insurgents involved in attacking a U.S. forward operation base when militants fired AK-47 machine guns at them.

The soldiers returned fire and captured two men, one of whom was wounded and taken to Kirkuk Hospital.

"Later that day, some civilians approached a (U.S.) base claiming that four civilians were killed during the earlier firefight," Aberle said.

The incident is the third in which the U.S. military is investigating claims that soldiers from Schofield killed Iraqis while on missions to seek out insurgents.

An Iraqi man was killed Feb. 27 apparently while resisting arrest during a U.S. operation seeking out insurgents. Military investigators are looking into what role a 25th Infantry Division soldier, a member of the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, had in the shooting in al-Huwijah, southwest of Kirkuk. The soldier has been confined to his barracks in Kirkuk.

The Al-Huwijah shooting followed the fatal shooting of an Iraqi girl on Feb. 18, also near Kirkuk. Soldiers were cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.

Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division arrived in Iraq about a month ago to replace troops who had been in the country for about a year.

"I don't think it's a case of unseasoned soldiers being twitchy on the trigger," said Aberle. "These are soldiers who have been specifically trained for the combat mission they are facing in Iraq."