Two US soldiers were shot by Iraqi soldier: generals

Baghdad, Jan 5 (BDPREM DESK) - An Iraqi soldier deliberately shot and killed a US army officer and a sergeant during a joint US-Iraqi patrol in the northern city of Mosul on Dec. 26, two Iraqi Army generals said on Saturday. Your Ad Here US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel James Hutton said the incident was under investigation but gave no details. It is believed to be the first reported incident in which an Iraqi soldier has deliberately killed a US serviceman. A US military statement on the deaths on Dec. 28 said Captain Rowdy J. Inman, 38, of Panorama Village, Texas, and Sergeant Benajmin B. Portell, 27 of Bakersfield, California had died from wounds suffered from hostile small arms fire. But the commander of the Iraqi army's 2nd Division, Brigadier-General Mutaa al-Khazraji, told Reuters the men were killed during a joint patrol by Iraqi and US troops in Hermat in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. "They (the patrol) were attacked by gunmen and the soldier abused the situation and killed the two soldiers. The soldier was an insurgent infiltrator," Khazraji said. "He was immediately arrested by the Iraqi Army and we are conducting interrogations." Brigadier General Noor al-Din Hussein, commander of the Iraqi Army's 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, told Reuters: "The shooting was deliberate, it was not an accident."