FALLUJAH, Iraq -- It was a fateful turn in the road. Traveling home one night from a local farm -- where the al-Jumaidy family had bought live chickens for their store in town -- the driver turned the pickup truck on to the highway to Fallujah, which has been the flashpoint for anti-American attacks for months.

Fifteen minutes later, the driver and four passengers lay dead in the vehicle, their bullet-riddled bodies battered by a volley of heavy fire from an American tank, which was part of a mobile checkpoint set up on the dark road.

Among the dead was 10-year-old Khalid al-Jumaidy -- his sweatpants, with the word "Italy," soaked in blood -- as well as his father and two young cousins, ages 18 and 21.

Those are about the only details that are not in dispute. What occurred during those chaotic 15 minutes late on Nov. 11 depends on whom one asks -- American soldiers or Iraqi residents.

Jassim Kalaf al-Jumaidy mourns his two sons, killed by U.S. forces Nov. 11 during a nighttime trip to buy chickens for their store.

Their starkly different versions of how Iraqis are killed by American soldiers is an increasingly familiar feature in the conflict, where neither side speaks the other's language and the truth is often lost in the confusion, leaving rage and frustration on both sides.

"Sometimes I think some of the attacks against American soldiers are not resistance against the occupation," says Shata Ali al-Qurashi, 34, a Baghdad attorney who represents several claimants against U.S. forces, some for wrongful death. "I think they are revenge by people who have claims against the military."

In the November incident, U.S. military officials say soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment fired shots after coming under fire "four separate times" from vehicles traveling on the outskirts of this town, about 65 miles west of Baghdad.

"The soldiers involved returned precisely aimed fire to defeat the attacking combatants," said Staff Sgt. Rodrick Stallings, a public affairs officer for the division. The 82nd Airborne is still investigating the incident.

Al-Jumaidy family members say there was no sign telling them to stop where the American tanks were parked on the highway. They also say American soldiers did not fire any warning shot -- or at least none they heard.

Family didn't see a warning

"It was totally dark," said Sa'ad Hamud al-Jumaidy, 20, Khalid's first cousin, who survived the tank's assault by hiding under the backseat of the truck. Sitting outside the family home, where scores of men gathered in a large mourning tent to pay their respects, he said he remembered little of those tumultuous minutes.

"No one shouted to us to slow down," he said. "And when they started to fire, we screamed: 'Stop! Stop! We're civilians!' No one answered us."

He said he believed American soldiers would surely have known they were civilians, because "we had 1,500 chickens in boxes on the back of the truck."

The division's official statement, issued Nov. 12, said the soldiers were fired on by one vehicle -- but did not say whether it was the al-Jumaidys' truck loaded with chickens.

When the soldiers returned fire, the occupants escaped, according to the statement, and attempted to get into a second vehicle, also unidentified. Soldiers opened fire on a third vehicle and killed two occupants when they arrived on the scene without slowing down. And occupants in a fourth vehicle fired on U.S. forces, the statement said.

Asked why soldiers did not fire tear gas or rubber bullets before using live ammunition, Sgt. Stallings said in an e-mail that since Iraqi fighters used only live ammunition, American soldiers were obliged to respond in kind.

Troops perceived a threat

"Our soldiers are trained in combat," Stallings wrote. "The only way that a person is going to get shot is by posing a threat to the soldiers. We've had insurgency, explosives, suicide bombs."

Disputed cases such as the al-Jumaidy's are often judged by military attorneys, without full court proceedings, or are settled quickly by local commanders.

The commanders say they are keenly aware of the possible damage in relationships that mistaken shootings can cause, but Iraqi lawyers who represent civilians in disputed cases say they face months of bureaucracy in pursuit of redress.

"You go through this incredibly long process," said Wa'el Sabeeh al- Sa'adi, an attorney in south Baghdad. "The military always demands to know the number of the unit, which Iraqis never know."

Sifting through hospital records and press reports, the Project on Defense Alternatives in Cambridge, Mass., last month estimated that about 200 Iraqi civilians had been killed by American firepower since May 1, the date President Bush declared major combat over.

The project's co-director, Carl Conetta, said that the figure excludes deaths since U.S. forces launched their biggest offensive since April, Operation Iron Hammer, earlier this month.

Human Rights Watch in New York said the organization's researchers in Baghdad had found "credible" reports of 94 civilian deaths by American firepower in the capital alone, between May 1 and Oct. 1.

The report said five of those deaths have been investigated above division level -- the level that can order courts-martial or grant substantial compensation. In four of those cases, soldiers were deemed justified in killing the civilians. The fifth is still under investigation.

Rights groups cite violations

Exacerbating the problem, says Human Rights Watch, is a sense among soldiers that they will not be punished for using excessive force. "Right now, soldiers feel they can pull the trigger without coming under review," Joe Stork, the organization's acting director for the Middle East, said in a statement last month.

The Coalition Provisional Authority disputed Human Rights Watch's conclusions, saying the organization failed to understand the military's rules of engagement.

"Iraq is currently a combat zone, and forces here are engaged in combat operations against determined enemy forces of significant size," the CPA said in a statement earlier this month.

It also refuted Stork's charge than U.S. soldiers face little punishment for illegal or unnecessary force against Iraqi civilians. "We have fully investigated all credible reports and have taken appropriate action considering the constitutional protections for the soldiers involved, applicable military law, and the law of war," said the statement.

Iraqis complain that such "appropriate action" rarely extends to compensation for an aggrieved party.

Four months after 12-year-old Mohammed al-Kubaisi was mistakenly shot dead on the family rooftop by a passing American patrol, the family has yet to receive any compensation, although U.S. military officers apologized.

The al-Kubaisi's tribal sheikh in Baghdad says he is now considering other forms of redress, which could include killing American soldiers. That decision would be made by a meeting of sheikhs, who regularly rule on inter- tribal disputes.

"If they don't pay our settlement, we'll kill four of them," said Sheikh Abdul Salam Mohammed al-Kubaisi, sitting in his tribal office in central Baghdad near the Tigris River. "The Americans are like a tribe for us."

Similarly, the tribal sheikh representing the al-Jumaidy family in Fallujah says tribal justice seems simpler than applying for U.S. military compensation.

An eye for an eye

"Our tribal rule is if one of them kills one of ours, we kill one of theirs," said Sheikh Abdullah Farhan al-Jumaidy. "The problem is that the Americans are very powerful. And we don't know exactly which soldier killed the five people."

Jassim Kalaf al-Jumaidy, 40, whose two sons, Hisham, 18, and Wissam, 21, were killed by American gunfire, says he is not ready to seek deadly revenge. The father said he had stayed home that fateful night, venturing out only at 4 a.m. to find his missing family. He discovered the dead bodies still lying in the family's chicken truck near Fallujah's Jordanian Hospital.

He dropped his head in his hands as he recalled the moment.

"We will be patient and see what happens," he said quietly, sitting outside his home, surrounded by mourners. "The Americans must pay us money at least.

"But it is more important that they leave our country."

©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

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