Iraqi VP’s Party Severs US Ties Over Killing

Hundreds of local residents took to the streets chanting slogans against US forces while Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s Iraqi Islamic Party announced that it was suspending all official contact with US civilian and military personnel after a Friday morning raid by Iraqi and Coalition forces in Fallujah.

The Iraqi Islamic Party says that the raid killed one of its senior members and was politically motivated. The official US account says the man was killed after opening fire on troops during a raid which netted a suspected Hamas al-Iraq leader and an “IED cache.” Fallujah police however labeled the slain man “an Iraqi civilian” and said the forces detained six others.

The party says it will not resume ties with the US until it received “a convincing explanation of what happened, accompanied by an official apology stressing that those who committed these attacks are turned over to justice.” Vice President Hashemi also wrote a letter to the tribe of the slain man condemning the raid and promising to “put all my effort into releasing the innocent brother detainees.”