U.S. Strike Kills 6 Iraqi Sunni Volunteers

Military Says Attack Is Under Investigation; Former Insurgents Express Frustration

BAGHDAD, March 22 -- American-backed Sunni volunteer forces had set up two checkpoints at a small bridge near the insurgent stronghold city of Samarra, taking precautions not to be mistaken for enemy fighters. They had spent the night before with their U.S. allies, marking areas where their men were stationed, and said they were told everything was fine.

"Our men wore special uniforms with the translucent markings so that they would be recognized by the American planes and were deployed at two points north and south of Ishaki bridge," said Abu Farouk, a leader of the predominantly Sunni "Awakening" forces, which the U.S. military refers to as the Sons of Iraq or Concerned Local Citizens.

At 4 a.m. Saturday, an Apache helicopter opened fire, killing six men and wounding two. The military said in a statement that the men were suspected of planting improvised explosive devices. Citing initial reports, the military acknowledged that Farouk's group was friendly to U.S. forces and said the attack was under investigation.

"We were afraid that something like this would happen, and it did," Farouk said.

Members of the Awakening forces have been increasingly frustrated with the U.S. military and the Iraqi government over what they see as insufficient U.S. support and a lack of recognition of their growing political clout. Their participation in the war on the U.S. side is one of the three pillars of the U.S.-Iraqi strategy for stabilizing the security situation in Iraq.

In a measure of the drop in violence, 92 U.S. soldiers have been killed this year, compared with 245 in the first three months of last year, according to icasualties.org.

The deaths this year included three American soldiers killed Saturday when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb during a patrol in northwestern Baghdad.

The Ishaki bridge is nine miles south of Samarra, which is about 85 miles north of Baghdad. The American assault on the bridge checkpoints was the sixth incident in which U.S. forces have attacked Awakening forces.

On Feb. 14, Issa Muhsin al-Jubouri, a leader of Awakening forces in the village of Zaab, west of Kirkuk, accused the military of killing six of his relatives and of trying to beat him into confessing that he supported terrorists. The next day, U.S. soldiers killed three Awakening fighters in the southern town of Jurf al-Sakr. U.S. commanders said that the men had fired on the soldiers, who reacted in self-defense. After the deaths, 1,000 fighters walked away from their posts.

Suhail Najem, 35, an Awakening member, said fighters in Samarra are angry and disturbed about the attacks.

"We hear of apologies and material compensation, as if the Iraqi man has become no more than an apology and an amount of dollars," he said. "When we volunteered, we did not want to help the Americans out of the Iraqi quagmire but to rebuild our town and safeguard what is left of it."

The Awakening forces are made up mostly of former insurgents who turned against extremists because of their harsh tactics and radical interpretation of Islam. Farouk, 50, was a leader of the Islamic Army, one of the largest insurgent groups, which has been blamed for killing hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans.

Farouk said his Awakening group received orders to set up checkpoints at the Ishaki bridge. Insurgents frequently use the area to stage kidnappings and killings, he said. The group took several security measures, including blocking secondary roads and setting up barricades to control the main intersections.

In its statement, the U.S. military said the six men who were killed were "spotted conducting suspicious terrorist activity in an area historically known for improvised explosive device emplacement."

"Initial reports suggested the attack may have been against a Sons of Iraq checkpoint," the statement said.

Special correspondents Zaid Sabah and K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.