- Military: US Troops Killed Iraqi Newspaper Editor Son

25th July, 2008.

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said Friday that bullets fired by American soldiers killed the 14-year-old son of the chief editor of a U.S.-sponsored newspaper during a gunbattle this week in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The military said Arkan Ali Taha was hit when soldiers came under heavy gunfire from a passing taxi and shot back. The boy was riding in the cab and the driver was later taken into custody, the statement said.

The father said his son was not involved with extremist groups and didn't know how to use weapons. He said the boy had hired the cab to bring a set of keys to the newspaper.

According to the U.S. statement, American troops were trying to recover a disabled vehicle in Kirkuk on Wednesday when multiple shots were fired at them from the taxi. One soldier was wounded, it said.

"The soldiers returned fire, killing a young Iraqi man in the taxi," the military said, adding that Iraqi police later detained the driver.

The boy's father, Ali Taha, who is chief editor of the U.S.-sponsored Voices of Villages newspaper, said he had asked his son to bring the keys to his office.

He insisted his son was not armed and said he didn't believe the taxi driver was either.

"My son was only 14 years old," he told The Associated Press. "He is neither a terrorist, nor a gun carrier. He didn't even know how to use a pistol. The only thing he knew how to use was the computer."