BAGHDAD - Iraqi
authorities have detained five U.S. citizens in connection with the
death of an American contractor in Baghdad, officials said Sunday, in
what could be the first case of Americans facing local justice under a
joint security pact that took effect this year.
The body of Jim
Kitterman, who was reportedly bound, blindfolded and stabbed, was
found in his car last month in the protected Green Zone where his
small construction company was based.
It was an
unprecedented slaying in the sprawling district and occurred at a time
when blast walls are coming down and Iraqi forces are assuming greater
control of their own security.
U.S Embassy spokesman
James Fennell confirmed that five Americans are in Iraqi custody but
said no formal charges have been filed so he couldn't provide further
details about the detention.
Embassy officials
have visited the men to make sure they're being given their rights in
accordance with Iraqi law, Fennell said, adding "the men appeared
well."
Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali
Kamal, a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official, said the detained
Americans were from the same company as the slain contractor, but he
declined to give more details because the investigation is ongoing.
Although Americans
and others have been killed in rocket or mortar attacks in the Green
Zone, Kitterman was believed to be the first American ever
assassinated there since the protected area was established after the
city fell to U.S. forces in April 2003.
Iraq
assumed control of the Green Zone on Jan. 1 under a U.S.-Iraqi
security agreement, taking primary responsibility from the Americans
for searching vehicles and checking identity papers as entry
checkpoints.
The Iraqis have begun
removing some of the protective blast falls around the Green Zone —
part of a campaign to restore a sense of normalcy as violence in the
city has waned.
Violence, however,
continues.
A rocket or mortar
slammed into the Green Zone Sunday morning but no casualties were
reported, according to the U.S. military.
The attack came just
over two weeks after American was killed when a rocket struck the
sprawling area that houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi
government.
