The only terrorists in Karmah are American

Leila Fadel and Ali Al-Basri report on the killing of a nine year old girl in Karmah. It is heartbreaking.

U.S. officials in Baghdad confirmed that U.S. special forces and Iraqi troops arrested one suspected member of al-Qaida in Iraq in a raid near Karmah, south of Fallujah. But they had no information about the death of Hadil Walid Majed Mitaab, 9, who family members said was in a house in Sicher, near Karmah, with her mother when U.S. and Iraqi troops attacked at about 2:30 a.m.

With helicopters flying overhead, the troops blasted away the doors of two houses and opened fire on a third. Police and relatives said a bullet pierced Hadil's neck, and she bled to death in her mother's arms.

Hadel's father, Walid Majed Mitaab, said a U.S. soldier apologized to him through a translator.

I commented in June on reports that a U.S. predicted that Karmah would be cleared of al-Qaida by July. Although I had a skeptical tone in that comment, the family of Hadil says that the area is clear of al-Qaida.

Family members said they didn't understand why troops had raided the area, which they said had been clear of al-Qaida in Iraq since residents turned on the group earlier in the year. Three men were detained in the raid, they said. The U.S. also said three men were detained, though two were later released.

Ali Abbass Ali, a local police officer who was doing the overnight shift at the police station about 60 yards away, said no one shot at the soldiers before they began shooting.

This kind of activity by U.S. military is incomprehensible, and it is totally counterproductive. We have to get the hell out of Iraq.