This should be interesting.Iraqi deputies have demanded an official apology from Washington over the manhandling by US soldiers of a member of parliament at a Baghdad checkpoint.[...]
"One US soldier appeared to be designated to my car in particular, as it carried the picture of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
"As though he was antagonised by the picture, the US soldier began to utter some words in English which I did not understand. When I handed out my MP badge and showed it to him, he threw it at my face, opened the car door and pulled me out."[...]
"The soldier twisted my hands to the back in an effort to handcuff me.
"The soldier began to beat me and squeezed me by putting his arm firmly around my neck. Then they pulled me off to a nearby room 10m away in their headquarters."
Al-Shaikh said the US soldier continued to beat him even after he told them that he was an elected MP.
The US military said it was investigating the incident and refused to comment.[...]
At least three other deputies said they witnessed the mistreatment of al-Shaikh.
"I saw the whole thing and adding insult to injury was when Iraqi soldiers drew their rifles at brother Fatah as he was being mistreated by the Americans," Ali Yushaa, an independent Shia MP, said.[...]
Deputies took turns to speak for almost two hours about the many indignities that they and the Iraqi population suffer when coming in contact with US troops.
[...]
"According to the Geneva conventions, an occupying force must respect the occupied nation," Abd al-Khaliq Zanganah, a Kurdish MP said. "This offending soldier must be thrown out of our country."
[...]
Deputies suspended their session on Tuesday for an hour in protest against the incident involving Fatah al-Shaikh, a follower of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and member of the dominant United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) bloc, Aljazeera reported.
They then voted unanimously on a motion demanding an official apology from the US embassy and Washington, and the punishment of the US soldier involved.
[...]
Speaker Hajim al-Hasani said he would suspend sessions altogether unless they moved within a week to a building on the fringes of the Green Zone that has its own entrance and would be guarded by Iraqi soldiers.
Also...
A commercial helicopter contracted by the U.S. government was shot down by missile fire Thursday, killing at least nine people, including six American contractors who worked for a North Carolina company, officials said.
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