BAGHDAD, Sept 27: Human rights groups, saying US soldiers have been given a virtual “licence to kill”, are accusing the United States of failing to conduct proper inquiries into civilian deaths in occupied Iraq.

Since overthrowing Saddam Hussein in April, the military has announced several inquiries into alleged wrongdoing by its forces here. But few findings have been reported and almost all of those have exonerated the troops.

The growing number of civilian casualties, and the military’s track record in investigating them, has triggered alarm in rights groups that insist ongoing tensions in Iraq should not blunt a commitment to justice.

“No one feels safe in Iraq now and not a day goes by without more civilians being killed or injured by US soldiers or by armed groups amidst total impunity,” the Amnesty International said on Friday.

“US forces are facing direct attacks and a serious law and order emergency, but that cannot be justification for a virtual licence to kill,” Amnesty said in a statement issued in Geneva.

US officials have not been much forthcoming on repeated requests for the number of US soldiers punished for misconduct here since the occupation started.

“I’ll have to refer that to our research department,” Sergeant Nicole Thompson, a US spokeswoman, said.

The military did announce on Friday that soldiers were facing disciplinary action for an incident last month when a helicopter tried to remove a religious flag here and triggered a clash that left an Iraqi dead.

An e-mail in response to repeated queries on the case said an inquiry had found the soldiers involved guilty of “poor judgment” and had initiated “administrative actions” against them.

The Aug 13 episode sparked angry protests among Shias in the poor Sadr City district and prompted a US apology. But military officials would not say which troops faced punishment and what sanctions awaited them.

US officials also apologized for the Sept 12 deaths of nine Iraqi security men and a Jordanian hospital guard. But an inquiry found the US troops who opened fire on a high-speed police chase “acted within the construct of their rules of engagement”.

The same formulation was used to exonerate US soldiers who killed two Iraqi policemen and a TV cameraman last month, and two cameramen at the media-heavy Palestine Hotel that took a shell from a US tank in April.

Fred Abraham, a researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said he was “uncomfortable with the apparent lack of transparency in the process” of investigating the deaths.

“It is clearly so upsetting for the Iraqi public that it’s incumbent on them (the US military) to make public how they conduct their investigations and to be forthcoming with the results,” Mr Abraham said.

Amnesty International took a much tougher line.

“What is most shocking is that there is no evidence of serious commitment to carry out independent, thorough and impartial investigations into these cases,” the London-based group said.

The statement, timed to coincide with a key UN debate on Iraq’s future, called on the international community to urgently address the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

“It is unacceptable that the coalition forces appear to continue to use excessive force on a wide scale, resulting in civilian deaths,” Amnesty said. —AFP