Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Iraqi PM wants investigation into US rape case | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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KUWAIT, (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday he would demand an independent Iraqi inquiry into the suspected rape and murder of a teenager and the killing of her family by U.S. soldiers.

“Yes, we will demand an independent Iraqi inquiry, or a joint investigation with multinational forces,” he told reporters on a visit to Kuwait.

“We do not accept the violation of Iraqi people’s honour as happened in this case. We believe that the immunity granted to international forces has emboldened them to commit such crimes and … there must be a review of this immunity,” he told a news conference.

One American has been charged in a U.S. court and the rape element makes the case — the fifth U.S. inquiry into killings of Iraqi civilians in recent months — potentially more damaging for the military in its already fraught relations with Iraqis and their increasingly independent minded leaders.