RAMADI, June 13: An Iraqi shepherd is seeking 200 million dollars in damages from the US military for the deaths of 17 members of his family as well as 200 sheep in a missile strike, in the first such suit filed through the courts of the US-led occupation administration.

The first hearing will take place on July 20 at the tribunal of Ramadi, 100kms west of Baghdad.

“The trial will be Iraq’s first against US troops because we believe they used excessive force against the Iraqi people who cooperated with the United States to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime,” Abud Sarhan’s lawyer said.

Lawyer Rabah al Alwani was approached by Mr Sarhan, 71, to file a suit against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Iraq, after the shepherd claimed a US missile landed on his tent on April 4.

Days before, Mr Sarhan had left his home village of Al Altash, near an Iraqi military base that was heavily bombed by warplanes.

He had set up a tent in the nearby desert to host 20 of his family members and relatives in three distinct sections, one for women, one for men and the other for children, said his half-brother Hamad Sarhan, 25, who was wounded in the attack.

“We thought we would be safe there. There were no military positions, only shepherds and their flocks.

“Before the night prayer, a missile landed next to us, shortly afterwards another one fell right into the women’s section.

“It was horrible. We could not make out whose limbs were scattered on the ground,” he said.

All his family members died, except for him and his half-brother as the two had stepped outside the tent to perform their ablutions in preparation for prayer.—AFP