U.S. airstrike kills 5 Kurdish troops in friendly fire incident in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. helicopters on Friday mistakenly killed at least five Kurdish troops, a group that Washington hopes to enlist as a partner to help secure Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The Kurdish deaths occurred about midnight in eastern Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. The U.S. military said the airstrike was targeting al-Qaida fighters, but later issued an apology, saying the five men killed had been identified as Kurdish police.

Kurdish officials put the casualty toll at eight killed and six wounded, and said the men were guarding a branch of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan — led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a key supporter of U.S. efforts in Iraq.

The U.S. military said the attack was launched after ground forces identified armed men in a bunker near a building they thought was being used to make bombs. The troops called for the men to put down their weapons in Arabic and Kurdish and fired warning shots before helicopters fired at the bunker, the military said.

Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker who is not a PUK member but has strong ties to the community, said that for U.S. troops, the incident amounted to "attacking the people who support them."

"This is not a good sign for the new security plan that they (U.S. forces) have started," Othman said.

Separately, the U.S. military said three American soldiers died Thursday in fighting in western Anbar province, bringing the total number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq this month to 33.

A roadside bomb killed one British soldier and wounded three others Friday in southern Iraq, raising the number of British combat deaths since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 101.

The Iraqi government also gave its first public response to the arrest on Thursday of Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, accused of diverting millions of dollars to the biggest Shiite militia and allowing death squads to use ambulances and government hospitals for kidnappings and killings.

Sadiq al-Rikabi, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said no one would be immune from a security crackdown in Baghdad.

"If it is proved he (al-Zamili) is innocent, then he will be set free, otherwise he should receive his punishment," al-Rikabi said. "This is our clear message and (the security plan) will be carried out far away from any political or sectarian calculations."