Iraq soldier fires on U.S. troops, killing two

BAGHDAD – Two U.S. service members were killed and nine others were wounded when a Kurdish Iraqi soldier sprayed them with gunfire inside an Iraqi army commando base north of Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said.

The two Americans, whose names were being withheld until relatives are notified, were the first U.S. service members to be killed in Iraq since the Obama administration declared combat operations there officially over last week. The incident underscored the dangers still facing the nearly 50,000 U.S. troops still in the country.

Details remained murky Tuesday while the U.S. military investigated the incident. U.S. troops had escorted their commander to an afternoon meeting at an Iraqi army base in Tuz Khurmatu, 55 miles south of Kirkuk. During the meeting, a man in an Iraqi army uniform opened fire, the U.S. military said, adding that the assailant was shot dead at the scene.

It was unclear Tuesday whether the young shooter, whom Iraqi security officials identified as Soran Rahman Taleh Wali, a Kurdish member of one of the Iraqi army’s special forces units, had planned the attack or acted spontaneously.

His commander, Staff Col. Ghaleb al-Bayati, said Wali was playing volleyball with U.S. troops inside the base when an argument escalated and Wali fired his weapon repeatedly, Bayati said.

“I’m not ruling anything out, but it seems pretty far-fetched that an altercation like this would be over a volleyball match,” said Maj. Lee Peters, a military spokesman for U.S. forces in the north of Iraq.

“We think this is an isolated incident, and it hasn’t broken our trust with the Iraqi security forces.”

Peters said Tuesday night he could not confirm whether the shooter was an Iraqi soldier.

The attack was the second within three days on an Iraqi base where U.S. troops were present. On Sunday, a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated outside an Iraqi army headquarters in Baghdad, and at least four suicide bombers stormed the base, where several American service members are housed. Two gained entry before U.S. and Iraqi forces repelled the assault, which left at least 12 Iraqis dead, most of them soldiers.

Also Tuesday, a news anchor for the state television network al-Iraqiya was gunned down in the capital in what appeared to be part of an ongoing campaign of assassinations.

Gunmen used pistols capped with silencers Tuesday morning to shoot Riyadh Jabbar al-Sarray. Al-Iraqiya declared three days of mourning and replaced their broadcast with his image.