24 - BBC AIRS VIDEO ALLEGEDLY SHOWING ANOTHER U.S. MASSACRE IN IRAQ

BBC News has interjected itself into the latest controversy over whether American troops in Iraq are deliberately killing innocent civilians by airing video that appears to confirm that U.S. troops deliberately killed 11 innocent civilians, including five small children and four women in the town of Ishaqi in March. The BBC, which said that it had received the video from "a hardline Sunni group opposed to coalition forces," reported that at the time or the incident Iraqi police had accused U.S. troops of deliberately shooting the 11 civilians. It said that the matter is now being investigated by the Pentagon. At the time, it observed, the U.S. said that four people had died during the operation when the wall of a building fell on them. The video aired on the same day that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki denounced what he called "habitual attacks" by U.S. troops against Iraqi civilians and demanded that American officials turn over their files on the reported killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last year.

02/06/2006