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U.S. Launches Investigation After Iraqi Police Accuse U.S. Troops of Murdering 11 Men, Women and Children Last Week

Iraqi police have accused American troops of murdering 11 civilians in the assault. According to an Iraqi police report first obtained by the Knight Ridder news agency, the villagers were killed after US troops herded them into one room of a house near the city of Balad. The dead included five children and four women and ranged in age from 6 months to 75 years old. The report said the troops burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house. Local medics said the bodies of those killed had bullet wounds to the head. The US military contends that only four civilians were killed in the raid after they came under fire while trying to capture an al-Qaeda suspect. Photographs in the aftermath of the incident show locals cradling the bodies of dead children, and laying out their bodies in an emotional burial ceremony.

The report of the killings is unusual because it originated with Iraqi police and because Iraqi police were willing to attach their names to it. It was compiled by the Joint Coordination Center in Tikrit, a regional security center set up with United States military assistance.

The investigation into the killings comes hot on the heels of a US Navy criminal probe into reports that marines intentionally shot 15 civilians dead near the western town of Haditha last November.

Several Iraq veterans recently told BBC's NewsNight program that the Haditha attack was not an isolated. Specialist Michael Blake, who served in Balad, said it was common practice to "shoot up the landscape or anything that moved" after an explosion. Another veteran, Specialist Jody Casey said he was always advised to carry a shovel, which he could plant on any civilian victims to make it look as though they were digging roadside bombs.

We go to Baghdad to speak with the reporter Matthew Schofield. He is the European Bureau Chief for the Knight Ridder news agency, currently reporting from Iraq. He first obtained the Iraqi police report that accused US troops of the civilian killings.

• Matthew Schofield, European Bureau Chief for the Knight Ridder news agency speaking to us from Baghdad.
  - Read articles by Matthew Schofield

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