Iraq Envoy Wants Slaying Inquiry

WASHINGTON —  Iraq’s new ambassador to the United States was officially received by President Bush at the White House on Tuesday, and hours later accused U.S. troops of killing his unarmed cousin and then conducting a flawed investigation.

Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, renewing an allegation he first made last summer, said U.S. troops killed his cousin Mohammed, 21, in the course of house-to-house searches in the western Iraqi town of Haditha on June 25, 2005.

Haditha is now the focus of a major U.S. military investigation into allegations that Marines killed as many as 24 Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in a separate incident last November. Some lawmakers have warned that the case could be damaging to the U.S. image abroad, and are examining whether other similar cases might have occurred in western Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, mentioning the November killings for the first time, told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday that deaths of innocent civilians were not acceptable.

“It is not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists,” Maliki said.

Sumaidy also was critical of U.S. military personnel in the death of his cousin.

“I believe he was killed intentionally; I believe he was killed unnecessarily,” Sumaidy said in an interview with CNN. “Unfortunately, the investigation that took place after that sort of took a different course, and concluded that there was no unlawful killing. I would like further investigation.”

Sumaidy, who was formerly Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, officially became ambassador to the U.S. when Iraq’s new government was formed this month. In a ceremony with Bush, Sumaidy said he was “honored and privileged to serve as the ambassador of free Iraq ... to represent my country to this great country.”

But in the televised interview, Sumaidy said the case of his slain cousin had not received appropriate attention from U.S. authorities, even though it had been brought to the attention of top military officials, including Army Gen. George W. Casey, commander of American forces in Iraq.

Sumaidy said his cousin, a second-year engineering student, had let U.S. troops into his house to conduct a search.

“His mother, his siblings were there,” Sumaidy said. “He let them into the bedroom of his father and there he was shot.”

The U.S. military said the killing was in self-defense. Sumaidy said there was only one weapon in the house, and it was unloaded.

Mohammed “was not at all violent,” said Sumaidy, who complained publicly last year of the shooting. “All his life has been studies and intellectual work.”

The ambassador said Casey indicated an interest in the case, and had rejected an earlier military investigation. Sumaidy said he had formally asked for copies of reports on it two months ago but had not received them.

Calls to Sumaidy’s office in Washington were not immediately returned Tuesday. U.S. military officials in Baghdad said the case was under investigation. Pentagon officials referred inquiries to Baghdad.

Sumaidy said he had been told of one other case of killings in Haditha, which involved three unarmed youths in a car who were shot by U.S. troops.

In the November killings by Marines, some U.S. lawmakers have accused the military of covering up the circumstances of the deaths. Sumaidy said that among Iraqis, “there is always concern” about a cover-up. But he said he believed that the U.S. military would “ultimately possibly” undertake a thorough investigation.

“If it could be swept under the rug, it would,” Sumaidy said. “But when it goes up higher in the hierarchy, then there are people who recognize the potential damage of cover-ups, and there is a better possibility of this being opened up.”

Sumaidy said that “on the whole, the United States and the military are doing an honorable job on an honorable project.”

“I do believe that for every bad apple, bad Marine, there are thousands and thousands of good ... doing good jobs, doing the best they can under difficult circumstances,” he said.

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Times staff writer Julian E. Barnes contributed to this report.