|
Iraqis killed in anti-US protest
EFRAt least 13 Iraqis are reported to have been killed in the town of Falluja when US forces opened fire on demonstrators on Monday night. There are conflicting reports as to what happened in the town, which lies 50 kilometres (35 miles) west of Baghdad. A US spokesman said soldiers started shooting after people in the crowd fired on them - but Iraqi witnesses said the protesters were unarmed. American forces are reported to have entered Falluja for the first time two days ago. A local Sunni cleric, Kamal Shaker Mahmoud, said the demonstrators were unarmed and had gone to a local school occupied by US forces to ask them to leave, Reuters news agency reports. "It was a peaceful demonstration. They did not have any weapons. They were asking the Americans to leave the school so they could use it," the cleric is quoted as saying. Witnesses quoted by the French news agency, AFP, said the demonstrators had been marking Saddam Hussein's birthday when the Americans opened fire. The report said protesters were carrying portraits of their ousted leader and Iraqi flags when they approached a school manned by US troops. US Colonel Arnold Bray said American forces had come under fire from the protesters. Seven people had been killed in the incident, he said. According to local residents, several children were among the dead. A Reuters correspondent in the town said mourners chanted "Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice to you martyrs" as burials got under way. Posted by: Bulldog 2003-04-29 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=13626 |