BAGHDAD — U.S. forces apologized after nine people were killed and four injured in an errant U.S. airstrike near Baghdad late Saturday night, the military said Sunday.
One child was among the dead, and two children were among the injured, U.S. Army Maj. Brad Leighton said.
“We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident,” Leighton said. “We mourn the loss of innocent life.”
The airstrike occurred after the military spotted what it believed to be a team of insurgents readying a roadside bomb 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, the military source said.
A U.S. aircraft bombed a house that the suspected insurgents were believed to have entered. A ground search later revealed that the bomb site actually was a checkpoint for a concerned local citizens group, or CLC, and the guns they had been seen carrying were part of their authorized duties, the military source said.
Law lets Hussein officials serve
Iraq’s presidency council issued a law Sunday that will allow thousands of Saddam Hussein-era officials, members of the Baath party, to return to government jobs, the first of 18 key U.S.-set benchmarks to become law. But it was issued without the signature of the Sunni vice president, and the presidency council cited reservations and plans to seek changes in the bill, clouding hopes it would encourage hopes-for reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites.
Netherlands: Holloway confession?
Hidden camera footage broadcast in the Netherlands on Sunday showed Dutch student Joran Van der Sloot saying he was with Natalee Holloway when she collapsed on a beach in Aruba. He said he believed she was dead and asked a friend to dump her body in the sea. Last week, Van der Sloot said he was lying in those conversations with a man he believed to be his friend and denied that he had anything to do with the Alabama teenager’s 2005 disappearance. On Sunday, prosecutors in Aruba said a judge ruled that while the information merited an investigation against Van der Sloot, it did not meet the threshold for an arrest warrant.
Lebanon: Israeli fire kills one
Israeli forces opened fire across the Lebanese border late Sunday, killing one person and wounding another, Lebanese security officials said. The Israeli military said it was responding to fire apparently from drug smugglers on the Lebanese side. Such shootings have been rare since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Gaza Strip: Egypt closes border
Egyptian police sealed the Gaza Strip’s border with huge metal spikes and shipping containers Sunday, restoring a tight blockade after a breach that allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to cross freely for 12 days. The border breach temporarily relieved a seven-month blockade, imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized Gaza by force in June.
Britain: ‘Lolita’ beds yanked
Woolworths stores in Britain have stopped selling “Lolita” beds for young girls after a parents’ organization complained because of the name’s association with the famous novel about a pedophile. Woolworths said staff members who administered the retail chain’s Web site that sold the beds had been unaware of the name’s connection with Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel “Lolita” and two film adaptations, including a 1997 one starring Jeremy Irons.
Rwanda: Quakes kill at least 39
Two earthquakes struck hours apart Sunday in Rwanda (5.0 magnitude) and neighboring Congo (6.0 magnitude), killing at least 39 people and injuring nearly 400, officials said. Most of the dead were in Rwanda.
Serbia: Pro-Westerner wins
Serbia’s pro-Western president won a closely contested election Sunday, edging an ally of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic days before an expected declaration of independence by the breakaway Kosovo province. President Boris Tadic won 51 percent of the vote, while Tomislav Nikolic, who ruled with Milosevic during the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s, had 47 percent, according to the state electoral commission.
California: New wave of snow
Search teams scoured snow-covered slopes on Sunday for two missing skiers from San Francisco who were last seen at a Lake Tahoe resort Saturday during a storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow. Avalanche control efforts Sunday closed a highway over Carson Pass. Interstate 80 over Donner Summit was reopened Sunday after being closed overnight because of zero visibility and heavy snow. More than 12,000 Northern Californians experienced power outages.
From Herald news services
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