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Leading Iraqi Politician Accuses U.S. Forces Of Butchery

July 22, 2006 -- The speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Mahmud al-Mashhadani, has demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq and has accused U.S. troops of "butchery."

At a speech at a UN-sponsored conference on justice and reconciliation on July 22, al-Mashhadani, a conservative Islamist, said that Iraq had little use for foreign advice.

Al-Mashhadani is a member of the main Sunni Arab bloc in parliament, which is a member of the government.

The launch of a number of high-profile investigations into alleged abuses has in recent months thrown a sharper focus on the deaths of Iraqi civilians at the hands of U.S. forces.

In the latest incident, on July 21, U.S. troops killed at least three civilians -- two women and a child -- in a raid in the city of Ba'qubah, northeast of the capital, Baghdad.

The U.S. military expressed regret for the deaths.

(AFP)

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org