Iraqi Soldier Accused Of Killing U.S. Troops
Two Servicemen Slain During Joint Patrol

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 6, 2008

BAGHDAD, Jan. 6 -- An Iraqi serviceman shot and killed two U.S. soldiers during a patrol last month in the northern city of Mosul, one of the few reported cases of an Iraqi soldier intentionally killing his U.S. counterparts since the 2003 invasion, Iraqi and American officers said Saturday.

The shooting took place Dec. 26 when a joint American-Iraqi patrol came under fire from gunmen as they tried to set up a combat outpost in a dangerous neighborhood in western Mosul. The Iraqi military said the Iraqi soldier shot the two U.S. soldiers during the firefight and wounded several others.

The Iraqi soldier, a 25-year-old from a suburb south of Mosul, has ties to armed insurgent groups and had recently joined the Iraqi army, said Brig. Gen. Mutaa al-Khazraji, the commander of the 2nd Iraqi Army Division in Mosul, who declined to reveal the soldier's name.

In a statement released Saturday night, an anti-American Sunni group identified the Iraqi soldier as Qaisar Saadi al-Jubory and said he shot the Americans after their unit refused to stop beating a pregnant woman. "We do what we want," the Iraqi said the U.S. troops told him, according to the statement, which was posted on the Association of Muslim Scholars Web site.

Iraqi and American officials said there did not appear to be any basis to accusations that the U.S. soldiers had mistreated Iraqi civilians. "It is baseless and untrue," Khazraji said.

"There is no indication of anything like that," said a senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. "He just did it, and it's not clear what his motivation was. It appears to have been a total surprise."

In a statement issued Dec. 26, the U.S. military said only that Capt. Rowdy J. Inman, 38, of Panorama Village, Tex., and Sgt. Benjamin B. Portell, 27, of Bakersfield, Calif., died "from wounds sustained from small-arms fire while conducting operations." Both men were assigned to the 3rd Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in Fort Hood, Tex.

The U.S. military disclosed the circumstances of the deaths Saturday after Iraqi commanders said the two men had been shot by the Iraqi soldier. The matter is under investigation by the militaries of both countries.

The U.S. military command in Baghdad said Saturday that the Iraqi, who also wounded three other soldiers and a civilian interpreter, fled the scene after the shooting but was later captured.

Two Iraqi soldiers are being held in connection with the incident, U.S. officials said, suggesting that the alleged shooter had at least one accomplice. Khazraji, the Iraqi commander, said the men are in Iraqi custody.

Also Saturday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki returned to Iraq after a week in London for medical treatment that his aides had previously declined to describe.

In an interview Saturday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Maliki's doctors had recommended that he seek treatment outside of Iraq for heart-related issues "due to the stresses he is facing."

Dabbagh said doctors in London performed cardiac catheterization, a procedure in which long, thin tubes are placed in veins or arteries to remove blockages.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival at Baghdad International Airport, Maliki said: "I wish to reassure my brothers that I am in fine health and will start to work with them immediately."

In volatile Diyala province, a roadside bomb killed six people and wounded three others traveling in a minibus in the town of Khanaqin, said Col. Karawan Ibrahim, a military commander.

The U.S. military also announced early Sunday that an American soldier in Diyala province was killed Saturday in a roadside bombing. No other details were released.

Special correspondent Dlovan Brwari in Shikhan, K.I. Ibrahim and Zaid Sabah in Baghdad and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.