Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Iraqis Blast U.S. Over Rape-Slaying Case

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi lawmakers blasted the United States on Tuesday over an alleged rape-slaying case, while a southern governor said he was resigning amid fears Iraqi forces cannot handle security once coalition troops transfer responsibility there this month.

Two women legislators called for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be summoned to parliament to give assurances that justice would be done in the March 12 slaying of four members of a family in Mahmoudiya. A teenage girl allegedly was raped before being killed.

Former Pfc. Steven D. Green was charged Monday in federal court in North Carolina with murder and rape. At least four other U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation, and the military has stressed it is taking the allegations seriously.

Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab, denounced the purported attack as "monstrous and inhuman" and called on the U.N. Security Council "to stop these violations of human rights."

The two lawmakers, Safiya al-Suhail and Ayda al-Sharif, said condemnation was not enough.

"We demand severe punishment for the five soldiers involved," al-Sharif said. "Denouncements are not enough. If this act has taken place in another country, the world would have turned upside down."

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