BAGHDAD, 10 May 2007 — The US military yesterday denied reports that a helicopter gunship fired on a primary school north of Baghdad but confirmed at least two children were killed in an attack on insurgent bombers.
A statement from US headquarters in Baghdad said attack helicopters went into action on Tuesday near Mandali, a small town in Diyala province, when pilots spotted militants planting a bomb near an illegal checkpoint.
Following the air strike, US forces dispatched to the area were told by Iraqi civilians that the two bombers were killed along with five bystanders, two of them children, the statement said.
“The cause of the civilian casualties is the subject of an ongoing Task Force Lightning investigation,” it said.
“Contrary to some media reports, no school was fired upon.” Iraqi police Captain Ayad Hussein had earlier told reporters that “seven students” were killed when Mandali’s Al-Saada Primary School was fired upon by Apache helicopter gunships on Tuesday.
“When we went to ask the Americans in the region, they told us that the helicopter came under fire from areas near the school,” Sheikh Mohammed Saab Al-Naddawi of the Nida tribe told AFP.
“But later, a US patrol came to the area and apologized, saying that it was a mistake made by the pilot,” he added.
The Iraq allegations received widespread media coverage while the US military was not able to make an immediate comment.
Mandali is in an area notorious for attacks by Al-Qaeda insurgents on US and Iraqi security forces.
The military said the two insurgents killed in Tuesday’s attack were “high level IED (improvised explosive device) manufacturers” and were “identified as Abd Al-Qader Dadoush and Wadeh Kalifa Doudoush.” Four Iraqi journalists were killed yesterday in a drive-by shooting near the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.
The attackers armed with machine-guns opened fire as they drove past a vehicle carrying the four journalists at about 2 p.m. in the Rashad area, 20 km southwest of Kirkuk, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.
The four worked for the independent Raad media company, which publishes several weekly newspapers and monthly magazines that deal with politics, education and arts.
Meanwhile, a suicide truck bomb ripped through the Interior Ministry headquarters in the relatively peaceful Kurdish city of Irbil yesterday morning, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
Kurdish officials blamed Al-Qaeda linked insurgents for the devastating bombing — the first major attack to hit the regional capital in more than three years.
Also, he US military announced yesterday that an American soldier was killed and four others were wounded the day before in a shooting attack in the volatile province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad.
Elsewhere in northern Iraq, gunmen killed two members of the minority Yazidi sect and wounded another in a drive-by shooting in Mosul.
A car bomb also exploded near an Iraqi military checkpoint in Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two soldiers, police said.
Police found four decapitated heads in the Sabtiyah area north of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, health officials said. The body of a security officer was also found shot in the head and chest in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, police said.
In another development, family members are soon expected to visit five Iranians detained by US forces in northern Iraq in January.
The US military says the five are linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and backing militants in Iraq. Iran insists they are diplomats, wants them freed and has requested access.
