BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s biggest Sunni Arab political party suspended all dealings with U.S. civilian and military personnel on Saturday after U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out a raid in which a man was killed.
The incident could increase tension in a part of Iraq that was once the heartland of the insurgency against U.S. forces but has become among the quietest parts of the country over the past two years.
U.S. forces said one man had been arrested and one had been killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid against a suspected militant on Friday in the town of Falluja.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, headed by Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, said the targets of the raid were senior party officials. Five people had been detained and one killed “in his bed,” it said in a statement.
The official US reply was, “No comment at this time.” Which has been loosely interpreted to mean:
“Your so-called sectarian Iraqi Islamic Party is responsible for killing a whole bunch of your fellow Iraqi citizens.
You want to talk about dying in bed, that ain’t nothin compared to all those innocent folks killed by your car bombs or kidnappings! So I got no sympathy for ya. In this country we have this saying, “What goes around comes around,” personall I like the Bible saying, “You reap what you sow.” Now y’all listen up real good, you keep this terrorism business up and the next knock on your door will be from one of my Special Forces teams delivering you a very personal message… and it won’t be no candygram. ”
END OF OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE.