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Iraq to probe 2006 US carnage of Iraqis

A senior Iraqi official says his country is going to launch a probe into the massacre of at least 10 Iraqis, including women and children, by US troops in 2006.

The reaction comes after a US diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provided evidence that American troops executed at least an Iraqi man, four women and five children in the central Iraqi town of Balad, north of the capital Baghdad, during a raid on March 15, 2006.

“We will open an investigation about the case and we will follow all legal steps to obtain the rights for our victims,” AFP quoted Ali Mussawi, media advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, as saying on Friday.

WikiLeaks quoted a letter from Philip Alston, who was at the time Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, as saying that the children were all five years old or younger.

“I have received various reports indicating that at least 10 persons… were killed during the raid,” Alston wrote.

The US military claimed that an al-Qaeda suspect had been seized from a house in the area. But according to the cable, the US troops called in an airstrike on the house to destroy any evidence of the murders after the deadly incident.

“Troops entered the house, handcuffed all residents and executed all of them,” Alston said.

Washington has not provided any response to Alston’s questions yet.

Alston said that the US administration has left many such inquiries “in the 2006-2007 period” unanswered.

Bombings and other forms of violence escalated in Iraq soon after the US-led invasion of the Middle Eastern country began in 2003.

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