Iraqi mother, children killed for helping U.S.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Assailants slit the throats of a mother and her three children Wednesday in southern Iraq, where the family had fled to escape threats that they had cooperated with the Americans.

The mother’s sister was also slain in the savage attack, which occurred in an apartment in the southern city of Basra, police said. Five other family members were rescued before they bled to death.

Officials said the family had fled Baghdad for Basra after receiving threats because they had cooperated with U.S. forces. The officials gave no further details and spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals by militias that have infiltrated Basra’s police.

On the roads north of Baghdad, as many as 20 employees of the Sunni Endowment, the government agency that administers Sunni mosques and other religious sites, were kidnapped Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party.

In a joint statement Wednesday, America’s two top officials in Iraq deplored the surge in sectarian violence and called on the Iraqi people to unite against “the terrorists and death squads.”

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey also called on Iraq’s leaders “to take responsibility and pursue reconciliation not just in words, but through deeds as well.”

The statement reflected U.S. disappointment that the national unity government, which took office May 20, has faltered in its attempts to win public trust, calm sectarian tensions and persuade Sunni-led insurgents to lay down their weapons.

Instead, the situation in Iraq has gotten worse.

The human rights office of the U.N. mission in Iraq reported Tuesday that more than 14,000 civilians had been killed during the first half of this year, including more than 3,000 in June.