Parliamentary committee calls for investigation into U.S raid of northern town

BAGHDAD, Sept.21 (Iraqi News) A Parliamentary committee on Sunday called for the government to conduct an investigation on a U.S army raid of a northern Iraqi town. “We called for the government to conduct an investigation to check the causes of the accident and to stop such attacks against civilians,”said Parliament’s committee for human rights in a statement received by IraqiNews.com-Voices of Iraq(Iraqi News). “The committee denounced U.S. army random raids which have been repeated over time and lately killed a whole family inside their house in al-Dour”, the announcement cited MP Amir Thamir as saying. Earlier, a Salah al-Din police source said “U.S. choppers shelled a house in al-Dour district in south of Tikrit, killing eight members of the same family, in addition to destroying the house.” Civilian deaths are a sensitive issue in Iraq as it negotiates a deal with the U.S. that will govern the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq when a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. One of the key sticking points is the question of immunity for U.S. soldiers. In May, Iraqi police said eight civilians were killed in a helicopter strike in the northern town of Baeji, although U.S. forces said six of them were suspected militants with links to a bombing network. AM(S) 69