Iraqi guards leave posts near Baghdad

Members of the Sons of Iraq security corps stage a walkout to protest U.S. airstrikes they say have killed 12 civilians this month.

U.S.-allied security forces said Saturday that they were abandoning their posts in a volatile area south of Baghdad to protest airstrikes by American forces that they say have killed at least 12 civilians this month.

The walkout followed an airstrike Friday near the town of Jarf Sakhr that tribal leaders said killed three members of the civilian security volunteers credited with helping reduce violence across Iraq. The U.S. military said Friday that helicopters responding to gunfire near Jarf Sakhr fired rockets at a building, but it did not say whether there were casualties.On Feb. 2, nine Iraqis, including three members of the volunteer group, known as Sons of Iraq, were killed in the same area by an errant airstrike that the U.S. military has acknowledged.

Majeed Janabi, a tribal leader in the area who worked with U.S. forces to establish checkpoints manned by the fighters there, said he did not believe the shootings were a mistake. He said that in Friday's attack, the helicopter landed and U.S. forces fired on the guards. More