BAGHDAD: US troops early Sunday fired on a darkened car speeding towards a military convoy on the road to Baghdad’s international airport, killing the driver, an army spokesman told AFP.
The slain driver, identified by colleagues as Baghdad International Airport worker Karim Obaid Bardan, failed to heed repeated signals to slow down or turn on his headlights as he neared the military convoy, said US and Iraqi security officials.
US Army spokesman Colonel Barry Johnson said the convoy was moving on the highway towards the Camp Victory American base near the airport before sunrise on Sunday when a car approached "at high speed from the rear without its lights on."
"The driver failed to slow down, turn on his lights or react to hand-and-arm signals and other escalation-of-force procedures from the convoy," Johnson said.
"As a result, the vehicle was perceived as a threat and a decision was made to engage it with small-arms fire in order to stop it and to protect the convoy from a possible attack,"
The vehicle was perceived as a threat and US soldiers opened fire.
"We deeply regret that this action resulted in the death of an Iraqi who was driving the vehicle," Johnson said.
Iraqi drivers, he added, "know that they must use caution and avoid threatening behavior when approaching military vehicles."
The highway to the airport, known within the US military as "Route Irish" and grimly dubbed "RPG (rocket propelled grenade) alley", has long been considered as among the most dangerous in the world.
Those using the road were subject to daily attacks from insurgents during the peak of Iraq’s sectarian war in 2006 and 2007.
The pothole-littered highway was lined on both sides with blast walls, with burning cars a frequent sight, as Sunni Arab fighters who formed the bedrock of an anti-US insurgency after the 2003 invasion would routinely fire rockets and missiles onto its users.
Violence across the country, including along the highway, has however dropped dramatically in the past year and Baghdad’s mayor announced a week ago he wanted to beautify the road by the time the capital hosts an Arab League summit in March next year.
The shooting comes a day after Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said US troops would not be needed in Iraq beyond a December 2011 withdrawal deadline already in place between the two nations.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb in a western neighborhood killed one passer-by and wounded three during rush hour at the start of the Arab workweek. Two of the injured were policemen, according to city police and workers at Yarmouk hospital.
