IRAQ: Iraq to probe 4 slayings by U.S. troops

By THE TIME

Infuriated by the recent fatal shootings of four people by U.S. soldiers, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has decided to appoint a judge to hear evidence in the cases, a close aide said Sunday.

“There must be a hearing of some sort by an Iraqi judge,” said Haider Abadi, a lawmaker with Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party and member of the prime minister’s inner circle.

AFGHANISTAN: Nearly 700 civilians die in 2008 Afghan violence, says UN

By Agence France Pressse

KABUL, June 29, 2008  – Nearly 700 Afghan civilians have lost their
lives in crossfire between insurgents and foreign troops this year, the
United Nations said Sunday.

About 255 people were killed during operations by Afghan, NATO- and
US-led forces against militants while 422 others lost their lives in
attacks by rebels targeting government and military forces, UN’s Relief
Coordinator Sir John Holmes told reporters.

IRAQ: Americans among casualties in Iraq bombing

By McClatchy-Tribune News Service

BAGHDAD -  Bombers killed nearly 40 people Thursday in Iraq, half of them at a meeting of tribal sheiks in Anbar province, where the United States and tribal forces had been thought largely to have defeated Sunni Muslim insurgents.

Details of the Anbar bombing were sketchy, but U.S. officials confirmed that American service members were among the casualties.

The attack came just days before the United States was to turn Anbar security over to the Iraqis. That plan is now on hold, American officials said.

AFGHANISTAN: Canadian military silent on Afghan civilian deaths: UN investigator

By CBC NEWS

The Canadian military is being criticized by a UN investigator for a lack of accountability for civilian deaths in Afghanistan, where more than 200 civilians have been killed by international military forces this year, a recent report suggests.

The United Nation’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, told CBC News that senior Canadian officers, among those from other NATO countries operating in Afghanistan, have refused to provide him with information about civilian casualties when asked.

IRAQ: Bombs kill 20 as sheikhs meet, 18 near market

Bombers on Thursday killed at least 20 people west of Baghdad and at least 18 people in northern Iraq.

A suicide bomber attacked a meeting of tribal sheikhs in Karma, a town west of Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding 20 others, an Interior Ministry official said.

Coalition forces were among the casualties in the attack, which authorities believe was carried out by al Qaeda in Iraq.