US under fire for wedding strike, new abuse photos

THE US-led coalition in Iraq was reeling after US troops were accused of killing 40 people in a helicopter strike on a wedding party and new pictures were released showing grinning soldiers standing over dead Iraqi prisoners.

Residents of the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, said US helicopters targeted a neighbourhood early on Wednesday where a wedding was being held, with witnesses and reports saying 40 people were killed.

The Arab news channel Al-Arabiya aired footage of bodies loaded on trucks, which it said included those of women and children.

One child was decapitated. The body of a girl who appeared to be less than five years old lay in a white sheet, her dress soaked in blood.

The area, a desolate region, is popular with arms smugglers, and the US suspects militants use the route to slip in from Syria. It is under constant surveillance by US forces.

But coalition officials said forces raided a suspected safe house used by foreign fighters.

"At 3am on Wednesday coalition forces carried out a military operation on a house suspected of sheltering foreign fighters ... A helicopter fired on the house, killing 41 people," an official said in Baghdad.

His account differed from that of witnesses.

One said: "Without any provocation, American fighter bombers dropped 100 bombs, yes, 100 bombs, on a house in which there were 40 people."

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was concerned about the "excessive" use of force by the US military ahead of a handover to Iraqi sovereignty on June 30.

Meanwhile, two pictures of US soldiers smiling over the bodies of dead Iraq prisoners were certain to stoke the scandal at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib jail.

The soldiers already seen abusing and humiliating naked and hooded prisoners appear in the two new photographs broadcast on US media yesterday.

Army Specialist Charles Graner is seen giving the thumbs up sign over an unidentified body lying on a black body bag. A second picture was taken of Specialist Sabrina Harman over the same body.

Both soldiers are among seven guards charged with prisoner abuse. Jeremy Sivits was sentenced to a year in jail in the first court martial over the scandal.

Washington has sought to limit the damage of the scandal, which has already seen support levels for Bush fall ahead of the election.

US generals acknowledged there were many problems at the jail when they appeared on Wednesday before the Senate Armed Forces Committee and said more prosecutions could follow.

"We have already initiated courts-martial in seven cases, and there may very well be more prosecutions," said Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US forces in Iraq.

"We will hold people accountable," added General John Abizaid, head of US Central Command.