U.S. forces announce killing of man, wounding 2 others in Basra

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. Forces have announced on Thursday that they have killed a man and wounded two others, charging them with being “extremists,” in response for an attack against one of their bases in southern Iraq ’s Basra Airport on Wednesday.   “A group of armed men have launched seven 107-mlm rockets on Basra International Airport on Wednesday morning, in an attack against U.S. and Iraqi forces, stationed there,” a U.S. forces statement, copy of which dropped in IraqiNews.com news agency, said.   It pointed out that a U.S. Air Force plane had opened fire, in response to the attack, on the position from which the rockets were launched, whilst Iraqi security forces cordoned the position and began to gather information about the attack.   The statement added that the Iraqi forces have discovered “three extremists, who had been behind the attack, one of them killed and two others injured.”   A Basra security source had stated for IraqiNews.com on Wednesday that a civilian had been killed and three others injured by U.S. forces fire that targeted them after an attack by 7 Katusha rockets on their base in Basra Airport .   The statement quoted the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Forces in Southern Iraq, Major-General Edi Siorgin, has stated after the attack that “extremists, experiencing violence, exposing lives of innocent Iraqis for danger and their acts, don’t cope with the values and ambitions of the Iraqi people, and they can’t be pardoned,” adding that “the U.S. forces reserve the right to act, stemming from self-defense, according to the Security Agreement, singed between both countries.”   On his part, the Chairman of al-Ahrar (Liberals) Bloc in Basra, Mazin al-Maziny, had condemned what he described as “the evil act, committed against innocent people,” by the American forces in Basra’s Garmat-Ali area, informing IraqiNews.com that “the said attack was not the first of its kind, as several attacks were carried out during the past period by the U.S. forces, targeted against innocent people in Iraq.”   “Such acts stand counter to the text of the Security Agreement and the Iraqi government should put an end for such violations,” Maziny said, demanding the “the opening of a special investigation regarding the said issue, the interference of the Social Society and Human Rights organizations, and necessity for compensating the people, harmed by the terrorist acts, committed by the occupation forces.”   SKH (FT) 762