American soldiers accidentally shot and killed the leader of a local U.S.-allied Sunni group Tuesday after coming under attack in a volatile area north of Baghdad, the military said.
The shooting comes a week before the Shiite-led Iraqi government begins to assume authority over the Sunni groups known as the Sons of Iraq, or Awakening Councils.
The head of the group in Siniyah, Jassim al-Garrout, was killed after he rushed to the site of an ambush against U.S. forces in the area, which lies between the northern oil-hub of Beiji and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, according to witnesses and police.
One of al-Garrout’s comrades said the group would demand an apology from the Americans.
Separately, an American soldier was shot to death Tuesday in an attack about 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, the military said.
At least 4,170 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.