More Iraqi grief: Iraqis say U.S. killed 45 in wedding party

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A U.S. aircraft fired on a house in the desert near the Syrian border Wednesday, and Iraqi officials said more than 40 people were killed, including children. The U.S. military said the target was a suspected safe house for foreign fighters from Syria, but Iraqis said the helicopter had attacked a wedding party.

Associated Press Television footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled one atop the other. Several were children.

Also Wednesday, the first court-martial stemming from abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison was conducted in Baghdad.

Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits wept and apologized after receiving the maximum penalty of a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge. His testimony will now be used to prosecute other Americans accused of mistreating prisoners — most immediately, three men from his reserve unit who also appeared in court Wednesday.

Sivits pleaded guilty to four counts for taking pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated, including some of the photographs that triggered the abuse scandal and sparked international outrage when they were broadcast and published last month.

"I'd like to apologize to the Iraqi people and those detainees," Sivits said, breaking into tears. "I should have protected those detainees, not taken the photos."

The U.S. aircraft attack happened about 2:45 a.m. in a desert region near the border with Syria and Jordan, according to Lt. Col. Ziyad al-Jbouri, deputy police chief of Ramadi, the provincial capital about 250 miles to the east. He said 42 to 45 people died, including 15 children and 10 women. Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi, put the death toll at 45.

The area, a desolate region populated only by shepherds, is popular with smugglers, including weapons smugglers, and the U.S. military suspects militants use it as a route to slip in from Syria to fight the Americans. It is under constant surveillance by American forces.

Military officials in Washington refused to address the question of whether anyone from a wedding party was among the people killed.

In a statement, the U.S. Central Command said coalition forces conducted a military operation at 3 a.m. against a "suspected foreign fighter safe house" in the open desert, about 50 miles southwest of Husaybah and 15 miles from the Syrian border.