Iraqi leaders demand justice

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi lawmakers blasted the United States on Tuesday over an alleged rape-slaying case, while a southern governor said he was resigning amid fears Iraqi forces cannot handle security once coalition troops transfer responsibility there this month.

Two women legislators called for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be summoned to parliament to give assurances that justice would be done in the March 12 slaying of four members of a family in Mahmoudiya. A teenage girl was allegedly raped before being killed.

Former Pfc. Steven D. Green was charged Monday in federal court in North Carolina with murder and rape. At least four other U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation.

Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab, denounced the purported attack as “monstrous and inhuman” and called on the U.N. Security Council “to stop these violations of human rights.”

The two lawmakers, Safiya al-Suhail and Ayda al-Sharif, said condemnation was not enough.

“We demand severe punishment for the five soldiers involved,” al-Sharif said. “Denouncements are not enough.”

The March 12 attack on the Sunni Arab family in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, was among the worst in a series of cases of U.S. troops accused of killing and abusing Iraqi civilians.

The case came to light last week as al-Maliki’s new government was seeking to promote its national reconciliation program – a key step in the U.S. strategy to transfer security responsibility to the Iraqis so U.S. and other coalition forces can go home.

As part of that strategy, coalition troops plan to hand over security this month to the Iraqis in Muthanna, a generally peaceful southern province dominated by Shiite Muslims. Muthanna will be the first province handed over to Iraqi forces in its entirety.

On Tuesday, however, Gov. Mohammad Ali Hassan resigned his post effective as soon as British and Australian forces transfer responsibility, probably next week. Provincial police chief Col. Mohammed Najim Abu Kihila stepped down effective immediately.

Provincial council member Mohammed al-Zayadi cited “the deteriorating security situation” as the reason for the shake-up.