THE killing of up to ten Iraqi women and children by US troops at a checkpoint fuelled mutual mistrust between coalition forces and civilians yesterday as the official US version of events was contradicted by a journalist who witnessed the incident.

The deaths, at about 4.30pm on Monday near the central town of Najaf, came after American ground troops were ordered by Marine and army commanders to employ new, overtly aggressive tactics towards civilian Iraqi vehicles in response to a suicide car bomber who killed four US soldiers at a checkpoint on Saturday.

They dealt a terrible blow to US hopes of winning the hearts and minds of Iraqi civilians. The image of an increasingly suspicious and ruthless invading force operating on a hair trigger was reinforced yesterday when an unarmed driver speeding towards a military roadblock near the southern town of al-Shatrah was shot dead.

In Kuwait US soldiers shot and wounded the driver of a car that burst past a checkpoint near the Iraqi border. Kuwait said that the man had been an army captain running late for work.

According to US Central Command, based in Doha, Qatar, soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division manning a checkpoint on Highway 9, near Najaf, were approached by a “civilian vehicle”. They motioned for the vehicle to stop, but were ignored. The soldiers fired warning shots, which were also ignored, so shots were fired into the vehicle’s engine. It continued moving, so “as a last resort, soldiers fired into the passenger compartment of the vehicle”. Seven occupants were killed, two were injured and four were unharmed, the statement said.

“In light of recent terrorist attacks by the Iraqi regime, the soldiers exercised considerable restraint to avoid unnecessary loss of life,” the statement concluded.

In a markedly different and detailed version of events, William Branigin, a reporter for The Washington Post embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, described a blue, four-wheel-drive Toyota that came “barrelling toward” the intersection checkpoint.

Captain Ronny Johnson, who was within earshot of Mr Branigin, radioed one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley fighting vehicles to alert it to this potential threat.

“Fire a warning shot,” Captain Johnson was reported as saying. Then, “with increasing urgency”, the report continues, “he told the platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machinegun round into its radiator. “Stop (messing) around!” Johnson was heard yelling.

Finally, according to Mr Branigin’s report, he shouted: “Stop him, Red 1, stop him.” About six shots of 25mm canon fire were then heard from one of the Bradley vehicles.

As Captain Johnson peered at the vehicle through his binoculars, Mr Branigin reported, he shouted at the platoon leader: “You just f****** killed a family because you didn’t fire a warning shot!” The report quoted officers as saying that 15 civilians were in the vehicle. Captain Johnson’s company reported that ten of them, including five children who appeared to be under five, were killed.

However, later in his report, Mr Branigin writes that several soldiers “accepted the platoon leader’s explanation to Captain Johnson on the military radio that he had, in fact, fired two warning shots, but that the driver failed to stop”.

A spokesman for The Washington Post said that the newspaper stood by the report. “Mr Branigin heard himself the radio transmission he reported.”

Yesterday, as US Central Command launched an investigation, it was clear that any inquiry will do nothing to quell Arab anger.

In Bahrain a front page headline of the Akhbar al-Khaleej newspaper read: “Invaders commit massacre in al-Amin area . . . 26 martyred, including 11 children.” In Cairo a banner headline in the semi-official al-Gomhuria said: “The invading force commits three ugly massacres in Baghdad and Najaf.”

The suicide bombing on Saturday has had a profound effect. Before the incident, Iraqi civilians drove through checkpoints routinely, chatting to US troops, often being handed sweets and rations.

On Monday, before the deaths at Najaf, US Marine Command issued new guidelines to troops to assume the worst and employ tougher tactics. Central Command emphasised that no new rules of engagement had been issued, but “procedures might be varied”.

Now, drivers and passengers are being ordered out of vehicles with their hands raised. Any vehicle blocking traffic will be rolled over.

Civilians approaching checkpoints with their hands in their pockets will be shot if they fail to heed a warning. Barriers are being used to create chicanes at checkpoints.

Pentagon officials conceded yesterday that the new tactics risk alienating civilians further and killing even more of them. There is also a recognition that the suicide bombing has, for the Arab world, turned the war from a secular conflict into a holy war that resonates with the Palestinian cause. The new checkpoint procedures, modelled on Israeli tactics in the West Bank, will reinforce that image.

“Nothing will work better than the threat of suicide bombers to alienate the US and British forces from the local Iraqi population,” Yossi Alpher, an Israeli analyst, said. “They will have no alternative but to view everyone above 14, every vehicle, even every animal such as donkeys, as a potential suicide bomb.”

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