MAJAR AL-KABIR: British forces were hunting down gunmen who killed six British military police after a violent demonstration that left four Iraqi civilians dead. Iraqi gunmen - enraged by the deaths of their countrymen at the hands of British soldiers - killed two UK military policemen during the demonstration Tuesday and then stormed a police station, killing four more. "We hope that we'll be able to bring those who are guilty of these attacks to justice," L. Paul Bremer, the top US official in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad on Wednesday. British military officials provided few details on the violence, which came on the same day another ambush wounded eight British troops, three of them seriously. At least four Iraqis were killed and 15 injured in the clashes. British military officials met with seven members of the city's administrative council in the nearby town of Amarah on Wednesday, seeking the killers' surrender, said Qassem Nimeh, an official in the mayor's office in Majar al-Kabir.
But a British Army spokeswoman, Capt Gemma Hardy, denied reports that the army had issued an ultimatum demanding the surrender of the killers within 48 hours. "That is absolutely categorically not the case," Hardy said. "The whole situation is being investigated. We are actively seeking them." The violent demonstration was the second in two days apparently sparked by soldiers' searches for heavy weapons in villagers' homes, said Abu Zahraa, a 30-year-old local vendor.
| "Damn Brits! Come stormin' into people's houses and carryin' off the family heirlooms from over the mantle, claimin' they're 'heavy weapons'! Goddammit! That SCUD was my grandaddy's!" |
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