Iraqis decry U.S. atrocities

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Top Sunni clerics accused U.S. occupation forces of committing an “atrocity” that killed 25 civilians near Baghdad, Reuters news agency reported.

The U.S. army said its forces killed 41 rebels during raids over the weekend in the rural area around Latifya and Yusifiya, south of the Iraqi capital.

A military statement said several Iraqi women and children were “inadvertently wounded by shrapnel" and treated in the site or evacuated, and didn’t mention civilian deaths.

But the Muslim Clerics Association, the main Sunni Arab religious grouping, which often attacks the U.S. occupation, said 25 Iraqi civilians were killed in the recent military operations.

"We hold the Iraqi government and the occupiers responsible for this brutal atrocity”, the association said in a statement.

There have been previous accusations by Iraqi officials that U.S. occupation forces caused numerous civilian deaths since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, especially during the deadly offensive on Fallujah in November 2004.

The recent complaint came at a critical time as Iraq’s new Prime Minister Nour Maliki is trying to form a national unity government, which can help curb sectarian violence that surged in Iraq after the Feb. 22 bombing of a major Shia shrine.

However, after hundreds of deaths and with tens of thousands of people having escaped their homes, some question whether a unity government can reverse a slide to civil war.

Meanwhile, more than 23 Iraqis have been killed in a shooting and bombing attack in Baghdad, police said, according to BBC.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead five people in the Baghdad’s north-easyern Shaab area. When people rushed to the scene, a car bomb exploded, killing 18 others.

More than 22 people were also injured in the attack, police said.

Iraqi officials say the death toll could rise.

In other violence, more than six Iraqi civilians were killed and four wounded in Baghdad’s southern Dora district during clashes between rebels and Iraqi police, officials said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. army said that three soldiers have been killed in roadside bombings over the past two days. One died Tuesday near Rasheed airfield, a former Iraqi air force installation in southern Baghdad. The two others were killed Monday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

The latest deaths bring the total U.S. death toll in Iraq to at least 2,448 since the start of the invasion.

* Saddam trial continues

The trial of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants resumed on Monday, with more defense witnesses taking the stand, BBC reported.

Saddam himself wasn’t in court for Tuesday’s session, one day after he refused to plead to detailed charges against him, including murder of 148 Shia villagers in Dujail.

Saddam’s lawyers complain that he wasn’t called to appear in court. But chief Jugde Raouf Abdul Rahman said that the defense team was present to respond to anything the witnesses might say in his absence.

Only three of the seven other defendants attended Tuesday’s hearing, Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid, his son Mizher and Mohammed Azawi Ali. The three are accused of aiding Saddam’s regime in the crackdown of Shia villagers in Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam’s life in 1982.

All eight defendants either refused to enter a plea or pleaded not guilty. They could face the death penalty if found guilty.

The defense phase is expected to last at least a month. After that, there will be a long recess while the court considers its verdict.

International human rights groups say that Saddam’s trial is conducted well below international legal standards.

After the Dujail trial, Saddam and six other former Iraqi officials will face charges of genocide over the 1988 Anfal campaign that left more than 100,000 Kurds dead.

Aljazeera