The U.S. military faced Iraqi anger on Sunday over a raid near the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala in which a distant relative of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was killed, according to Reuters. Iraqi leaders in Kerbala said the pre-dawn raid on Friday should have been approved by local authorities since security for the area was handed to Iraqi forces last year. The U.S. military has not responded to questions about the incident. The incident comes at a sensitive time for Washington, which is negotiating a new security pact with Baghdad to provide a legal basis for American troops to stay in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires on Dec. 31. One of the main sticking points in negotiations has been whether the U.S. military could conduct operations and detain suspects without Iraqi approval. "This action was barbaric and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. ... Iraqi forces in the local government were not aware of it," Aqeel al-Khazali, the governor of Kerbala province, told a news conference on Saturday. The Kerbala provincial council said it would stop working with U.S. forces in response to the incident. Provincial police chief Major-General Raad Shakir said U.S. helicopters landed in the al-Hindiya district, just east of the city of Kerbala, during the raid. One person was killed and another detained, he said.
