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BAGHDAD, May 20: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday it was concerned about an "excessive" use of force by the US military , after Iraqis accused troops of killing dozens at a wedding party.
"The excessive use of force violates international human rights," the ICRC spokeswoman in Baghdad, Nada Dumani, told AFP. "Even if (you came under) fire, there are rules of proportion in retaliation and the absolute need to prevent civilian casualties," she added.
"We understand that if they are attacked, US forces must retaliate, but while following rules of proportion in the use of force and taking all necessary precautions."
Residents of the western desert town of Qaim on the Syrian border said US helicopters targeted the wedding party, apparently after people had fired in the air, a customary form of celebration in the Arab world.
The satellite news channel Al-Arabiya aired footage of bodies wrapped in blankets and loaded on trucks, and said the dead included women and children, quoting witnesses as saying the aircraft also destroyed other houses.
US DENIAL: The US military, however, claimed that they were targeting a 'safe house' in the area.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US military in Iraq, told Reuters the attack early on Wednesday targeted "a suspected foreign fighter safe house", 25 km east of the Syrian border.
Asked about reports of dozens killed, he said: "We are not disputing the numbers you are hearing. We estimate that around 40 were killed. But we operated within our rules of engagement."
But Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, quoting eyewitnesses, said the raid on the village of Makr al-Deeb had hit wedding guests and had killed at least 41 civilians.
An unidentified man said he was from the village and that there had been an air strike as residents celebrated a wedding. "They hit two homes where the wedding was being held and then they levelled the whole village," he said. "No bullets were fired by us, nothing was happening." -AFP/Reuters
