The troops had stopped along a highway between Tikrit and Balad, north of the capital, after one of the vehicles in their logistics convoy broke down early Friday. They signalled for the truck, which was approaching the convoy from the rear, to stop but it sped up as it closed in, according to a statement.
A soldier then fired on the truck after the driver did not respond to the warnings, killing him. A teenage passenger was unharmed, and the incident is under joint US-Iraqi investigation.
“We regret the loss of life and our prayers are with the family of the driver,” said Major Derrick Cheng, spokesman for Multi-National Division North. “It’s a tragic event, but the soldier perceived a threat.
“He was protecting the convoy against what he thought was an attack and did so in accordance with the security agreement,” Cheng added. He was referring to a US-Iraq security accord that led to the pullout of US combat troops from Iraqi cities in June, and calls for American forces to leave the country by the end of 2011.
Car bomb kills 7
A car bomb in a market killed at least seven people and wounded 40 in the violent northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday.
Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province are among the last remaining strongholds of insurgents in Iraq, who have stepped up bombings to test Iraqi security forces since the U.S. military pulled out of Iraqi cities at the end of last month.
The latest bomb struck an area of eastern Mosul largely inhabited by the minority Shabak ethnic group, who profess the Shi’ite version of Islam.
Many recent militant attacks seem aimed at stoking ethnic and sectarian tensions in the country, which is still recovering from a wave of sectarian violence in 2006/7 that brought Iraq to the brink of all out civil war. On Thursday, two suicide bombings in Tal Afar, not far from Mosul, killed 34 people and wounded around 60.
