Unfriendly fire

An American Marine kills an Iraqi soldier.

Published January 2, 2007 4:15PM (EST)

Maybe this sort of thing has happened before, but the news from Fallujah, Iraq, today certainly puts a fine point on the chaos in which George W. Bush has left U.S. troops and the Iraqis they're supposed to be helping. According to a U.S. military spokesman, a U.S. Marine killed an Iraqi soldier over the weekend in an "altercation" between American and Iraqi troops at a security post they were supposed to be manning together.

The Marine has been placed on administrative duties while the military investigates, and the military spokesman says that life goes on. "This will not impact our mission to continue the transition of the security responsibility to the Iraqi Army," said Marine Lt. Col. Bryan Salas. "Marines and Iraqis from the two units continue to live, eat and fight alongside each other."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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Iraq Iraq War Middle East War Room