resized-3pbtp.jpgAt dawn a US raid hit the village of Kut in Wassit governate in Iraq. During the raid, a man (reportedly a local policeman) and his sister-in-law were killed by US forces.

Witness Nidhal Abdul Munem, the sister of the man killed in the raid, choked back tears as she recounted her story.

"They invaded our house, shot my brother and my sister-in-law and herded us into one area. All the while, we tried to ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’" she said.

Four (or six, reports are contradictory on this) others were arrested including the local police chief and a local clan elder. The policeman killed was apparently the brother of the arrested clan leader Ahmed Abdul Muneim al-Bdeir and the woman was al-Bdeir’s wife.  The US forces’ statement on the killings include the following blame the victim line:

The military said a woman was in the area during an exchange of gunfire with one of the suspects and "stepped into the line of fire."

And used justifications we have heard before:

It said those detained were suspected of aiding so-called "special groups" — Shiite militia factions that were once part of the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr — and another faction known as the Promise Day Brigades created by al-Sadr.

Washington says the special groups are backed by Iran. Tehran denies the charges.

This would all be so sadly familiar but today’s raid raises a new issue – the SOFA requires that all US military operations be conducted with the agreement of the Iraqi government and "‘fully coordinated’ with Iraqi authorities” and both the local and national Iraqi government say this raid was not.

Protests by the Wassit council apparently led to the eventual release of the men arrested – and following the usual pattern, an American commander has now apologized for the deaths:

Um Amar said top American military officials visited her home Sunday afternoon to offer an apology and return cash and cell phones that soldiers confiscated during the raid.

"They said it was a mistake," she said, bawling during a telephone interview. "But they couldn’t return those who died back to us."

… but the Iraqi government is demanding more – in fact, Prime Minister al Maliki is calling for the US command to hand over those responsible for prosecution in Iraqi’s courts.

The Straits Times says this raid “marks the most serious test of the security pact so far” and the response from the US forces is being watched very carefully to see if we have any intention of living up to the terms of the SOFA agreement.

 As Cernig notes over at Newshoggers:

It’s been clear for a while now that U.S. military commanders regard the Iraq/US security deal – the so-called SOFA agreement – as an inconvenience which they’re willing to parse and weasel-word their way around. Even General Odierno has often spoken in terms of the SOFA being ignorable, until reined in by SecDef Gates – and since then has said the SOFA is renegotiable. The Iraqi government, by contrast, appears to want their allies to stick to both letter and spirit of what they regard as the full and final agreement. Unless the Obama administration exerts far more control over the military there will be more incidents like this, opening a credibility gap which will by itself do more to create violence than sticking to the agreement ever would.