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The director of the National Command Center in the Interior Ministry, Gen. Abd al-Karim Khalaf told Aswat al-Iraq that, “A joint force of the Multinational Forces accompanied by Iraqi forces, while they were pursuing their objectives, clashed with guard posts belonging to the Interior Ministry, where a security cordon was in effect beginning from Tahrir Square to Muhammad al-Qasim Street, including around the entrance of the ministry.”
The general added that the guards at the posts “were surprised that the MNF forces and Iraqi Army forces mounted an attack on them, opening fire. The guard posts did not know in the beginning the nature of these attacking forces and mounted a response to the gunfire, which led to clashes for several minutes.”
Khalaf clarified that, “After announcing to the friendly forces that they were Interior Ministry troops, and conversely (as the MNF-Iraqi force announced) to the Interior Ministry forces that they were friendly forces, the clash disengaged, and it became apparent that this was an error in judgment by the commander of the joint forces group.”
The Iraqi general indicated that the clashes led to the deaths of three Iraqi policemen from the Interior ministry guard, and that nine others were wounded.
“The Baghdad command has been informed of all the details of the event and an investigation has been opened,” he said.
The MNF has not commented on Friday’s reported friendly-fire clash.
This event was apparently unrelated to another attack on Interior Ministry guard posts by unknown gunmen on Friday.
Five guards were killed in that separate attack, along with 12 wounded, when the guard towers at the Interior Ministry headquarters near Baghdad’s al-Bab al-Sharqi (Eastern Gate) area took automatic weapons fire early in the morning.
