U.S. troops blamed for Iraqi mill deaths

BAGHDAD, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. troops have killed three Iraqi guards at a flour mill in the Middle Eastern country, the Iraqi Trade Ministry has alleged.

Iraqi Trade Minister Abdulfalah al-Soodani has demanded the troops allegedly responsible for the guards' deaths at the state-run mill formally apologize for their actions, the Azzaman daily newspaper reported Thursday.

"The minister (Soodani) denounces and condemns the incident which has lead to the killing of three guards while they were asleep," a ministry statement said.

"They (the troops) burned part of the mill's archives, confiscated computers and damaged some of the factory's 250 trucks," the ministry alleged in the statement.

The ministry said a U.S. military officer came to the mill, whose location was not specified, following the alleged attack to apologize. The officer allegedly told officials at the Iraqi mill that the recent military raid had been based on a mistake, Azzaman reported.